Exclusive | Standard Chartered CEO Winters ‘optimistic’ lender can avoid China-US tension pitfalls
- Wealth business in China one of bank’s primary profit drivers
- Bank’s underlying profit before tax in mainland China more than doubled to US$316 million in the first half of the year
The bank, which is based in London but generates much of its revenue in Asia, has better access and more licences in China now than it has ever had before, as Beijing further opens up its domestic financial markets to foreign lenders, insurers and asset managers, Winters said.
The intensifying rivalry between the world’s two biggest economies, however, “presents more things to worry about” and requires the bank to regularly examine how these tensions could affect its business, he added.
“As I sit here today, I am hopeful we can avoid those pitfalls that would in some way divert us or derail us entirely,” Winters told the Post. “While the tension between the US and China is clear, there seems to be a realisation that these two economies are inextricably intertwined in a way that would be quite disruptive for both sides, for there to be a hard rupture. I remain very hopeful that we can avoid that.”
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