Standard Chartered PLC (LSE:STAN) upped its income guidance for the full year and the next two years as it, like larger rival HSBC, plans to focus more on its wealth management arm and restructure its retail banking businesses.
A strong performance was reported for the third quarter, with profit before tax up 41% to $1.8 billion, driven by a record quarter in wealth and strong growth in its capital markets unit.
"We are doubling investment in our consistently fast-growing and high-returning wealth management business, and we will continue to reshape our mass retail business to focus on developing our pipeline of future affluent and international banking clients," said chief executive Bill Winters.
In its corporate and investment banking business, Winters said action is being taken to "focus on larger global clients who rely on our unique cross-border capabilities".
All in all, he is eying a simpler business to help generate higher quality growth and improve return on tangible equity (RoTE) and shareholder payouts over the medium term
The 2026 RoTE target has been increased from 12% to "approaching 13%", and the target for shareholder distributions to "at least $8 billion" from $5 billion, between 2024 to 2026.