Standard Chartered Public Swot Analysis

Standard Chartered public limited is an British multinational banking and financial service company with its headquarters in London. Operating on a network of more than 1,200 branches and outlets across more than 70 countries, and has more than 87,000 employees.

STRENGTHS

Focused on high-growth markets

In the London stock market, Standard Chartered represents investing opportunities in the market banking sector. This firm always has attracted its potential growth, they have been softened due to the wobbly emerging market and depressed investor enthusiasm. Standard Chartered is different from other banks such as the Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays. They have managed to avoid all the scandal and disgust hanging over its London rivals,

There was a increase in the impairment losses on loans and advances and other credit risk provision. In 2009, the overall loan impairment charges increased by $679 million over 2008 to $2,000 million. They had a increase in loan impairment charges in 2007 and 2008 also. In 2009, impairment losses on loans and advances and other credit risk provisions rose 51% over 2008, while loans and advances increased by 9%. An increase in the impairment losses on the loans reflects their inappropriate loan extensions in high risk categories. This can have a very negative impact on their probability.

Shift towards wholesale banking could affect its growth prospects

In the past three to four years, Standard Chartered has changed its focus to wholesale banking led growth. The income from wholesale banking registered a year on year growth of 42.8% in 2008 while in 2009 the growth was 24.1%. At this same time, growth rate in the consumer banking division is at a very low single digits. The wholesale banking strategy seems to be working out. However, unlike in consumer banking, banks find it hard to squeeze margins in wholesale banking. Moreover, there seems to be a shift towards consumer banking and growth prospects in wholesale banking looks limited.

Globally, Islamic banking assets are estimated between $675 billion and $725 billion, and have a registered growth rate of 10-15% per year over the last 10 years. Middle eastern banks are one of the most developed Islamic banking markets, with more than $260 billion is assets. These islamic banks are expected to grow at a faster rate than non-Islamic banking assets. By 2013, the Islamic banking assets are expected to touch $950 billion. Since, Standard Chartered has a strong presence in Middle East and South Asia, the group is expected to benefit from the growth in the