Standard Chartered has reported a net loss of $478m for the year ended 31 December 2016, a huge improvement compared to a loss of $2.36bn in 2015.
Statutory pre-tax profit was $409m, compared to a loss of $1.52bn a year ago. Underlying Profit before tax increased to $1.1bn from $834m in the previous year.
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The bank’s statutory operating income during the period dropped 8% to $14.06bn from $15.29bn a year ago, while underlying operating income increased 11% year-on-year to $13.81bn.
The Asia-focused banking group’s underlying operating expenses dipped 5% year-on-year to $9.97bn.
The bank’s common equity tier 1 ratio in 2016 increased 100 basis points to 13.6%, mainly due to reduced risk-weighted assets.
The bank’s retail banking arm posted statutory profit before taxation of $719m for the year ended December 2016, a 37% surge from $524m in 2015. The unit’s underlying profit before taxation slumped 17% to $766m from $919m a year ago.
Operating income at the retail banking division dropped 9% to $4.67bn in 2016 from $5.10bn in 2015. Operating expenses decreased 3% year-on-year to $3.41bn.
Standard Chartered Group CEO Bill Winters said: “We have made a lot of progress in 2016 and invested heavily to build effective and sustainable systems and infrastructure to ensure we can play a leading role in discovering and disrupting financial crime. We have created a new platform at to demonstrate the contribution that we and others are making.
“We have sharpened our focus on all aspects of conduct, not simply on combating financial crime, and have taken appropriate action where we find conduct inconsistent with our standards. We are focusing on the behaviours, values and principles that we follow as individuals to enable us each to make the right decisions and exercise good judgement.”
The British banking group also said that it would not pay a dividend for 2016 owing to restructuring costs.
