Standard Chartered Bank

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Standard Chartered PLC <tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align:center; padding:16px 0 16px 0;"></td></tr>
Type	Public
Founded	1853
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom <tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Key people</th><td>E. Mervyn Davies CBE, Chairman, Peter Sands, Chief Executive</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Industry</th><td>Banking</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Products</th><td>Financial Services</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Revenue</th><td>Image:Green Arrow Up.svg $6.86 billion USD (2005)</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Operating income</th><td>Image:Green Arrow Up.svg $2.68 billion USD (2005)</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Net income</th><td>Image:Green Arrow Up.svg $1.97 billion USD (2005)</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Employees</th><td>43,899 (2005)</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Slogan</th><td>Leading the way</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Website</th><td>www.standardchartered.com</td></tr>

Standard Chartered Bank (LSE: STAN, SEHK: 2888) is a British bank headquartered in London with operations in many countries, especially in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Despite its British base, the bank has few customers in the United Kingdom, and most of its profits are made in its markets in Hong Kong, South Korea, India and other parts of Asia. It is however, a large British company, quoted on the London Stock Exchange and is among the top 20 constituent members of the FTSE 100 Index of leading British companies.

[edit] History

Standard Chartered Bank was formed through the friendly merger in 1969 of two British overseas banks: the Standard Bank of British South Africa and The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China.

Following the merger, Standard Chartered acquired the UK-based Hodge group and the Wallace Brothers Group. Offices were opened across Europe, Argentina, Canada, Panama, Nepal and USA.

In 1975 Standard Chartered acquired Union Bank in California, which brought with it branches in Guam, Saipan, Brazil, and Venezuela. In 1979 Standard Chartered Bank sold Union Bank to Bank of Tokyo.

In the late 1980s, Lloyds Bank of the UK launched a hostile takeover bid for Standard Chartered, but this was resisted. The bid was subsequently defeated.

During the 1990s, Standard Chartered continued to expand its network, opening in Vietnam in 1990, Cambodia and Iran in 1992, Tanzania in 1993 and Myanmar in 1995.

On 15th April 2005, the bank acquired Korea First Bank, beating HSBC in the bid. Since then the bank has rebranded the branches as SC First Bank.

On 9th August 2006 Standard Chartered announced that it had acquired an 81% shareholding in the Union Bank of Pakistan in a deal worth $415 million. This represents the first acquisition by a foreign firm of a Pakistani bank and once the merger is complete will make Standard Chartered the Pakistan's sixth largest bank.

[edit] Position today

Image:StanChart Singapore.JPG

Today the bank is a leading player throughout the developing world. Ranked 5th globally.

As of 2006, the bank employs 44,000 people encompassing 89 nationalities across 1,200 locations, in more than 50 countries in Asia, Africa, UK and the Americas.

Standard Chartered Bank is one of the three banks issuing banknotes for Hong Kong, the other two being the Bank of China (Hong Kong) and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

The bank supports marathons in key cities such as London, Singapore, Dubai, Lahore, Bombay, Hong Kong and Mombasa.