Standard Chartered Raises the Bar: RoTE Target Achieved Early

Standard Chartered PLC (LON: STAN) announced a robust set of Q3 2025 results, prompting an upgrade in its financial outlook.

The banking giant now anticipates delivering an underlying return on tangible equity (RoTE) of around 13% in 2025, a year ahead of its initial projections. The group's sharper strategic focus on servicing clients' cross-border and affluent banking needs is paying off.

Headline Numbers:

• Operating Income: $5.1 billion, up 5% year-on-year.
• Profit Before Tax: $2 billion, a 10% increase compared to Q3 2024.
• Return on Tangible Equity (RoTE): 13.4%, a significant 260 basis points improvement.

The bank's balance sheet remains strong, liquid, and well-diversified, with underlying loans and advances to customers up 1% and customer deposits up 2% quarter-on-quarter. The Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio stands at a healthy 14.2%. Tangible net asset value per share is $16.84, up 4 cents quarter-on-quarter and 175 cents year-on-year.

Shareholder value is further enhanced by the bank's capital allocation strategy. Standard Chartered plans to return at least $8 billion to shareholders cumulatively from 2024 to 2026. They also intend to continue increasing the full-year dividend per share over time.

Driver Breakdown:

• Wealth Solutions: A record quarter with income up 27%, driven by strong performance in investment products.
• Global Banking: Up 23%, fueled by higher origination and distribution volumes and increased capital markets activity.
• Expense Management: Operating expenses increased by 4%, but were partially offset by efficiency savings, demonstrating effective cost control.

Bill Winters, Group Chief Executive, said: “We now expect to deliver an underlying return on tangible equity of around 13% in 2025, hitting our target a year earlier than planned. Progress is broad-based, but our sharper strategic focus on servicing our clients' cross-border and affluent banking needs is paying off, with strong double-digit growth in Wealth Solutions and Global Banking, alongside good momentum in our Global Markets flow business.”