Bankable Insights - January 2020
The first Bankable Insights for 2020. This e-magazine was created for our Financial Institution clients, sharing critical insights for the industry.
**Bankable Insights**
**New decade, new opportunities**
Issue 12, January 2020
Welcome to the first edition of Bankable Insights for 2020
Hear from Heidi Toribio, Global Head, Financial Institutions, Standard Chartered, on how diversity will continue to drive innovation across the industry.
How we collectively respond to disruption will determine outcomes.
**Global economic outlook 2020**
**Emerging markets setting the agenda**
By David Mann, Global Chief Economist, Standard Chartered
Global economic growth is soft but stabilising in 2020 following a year in which escalating trade tensions and other uncertainties put the brakes on.
While there are reasons to be optimistic about the growth prospects for emerging markets, particularly those in Asia, economies in Europe will likely struggle to gain momentum.
Global gross domestic product (GDP) will grow at a subdued but stable 3.3 per cent in 2020, according to Standard Chartered’s Economic Outlook 2020 report.
This outlook depends largely on what happens in Asia as we estimate economies in the region (excluding Japan) will contribute 69 per cent of global GDP growth.
Without this contribution, our global growth forecast would drop to 1 per cent. Fortunately, we believe there are reasons to be more optimistic than the market consensus about the region’s economic prospects.
China remains a key
driver of global growth
We expect that China, the biggest single contributor to global economic growth, will set a GDP growth target of around 6 per cent in 2020 and provide policy support for a slightly higher rate.
This view is
contrary to the market
consensus, which sees China achieving less than 6 per cent growth, but we believe it is justified."
The government will need to ensure growth of at least 6.1 per cent in 2019-20 if it is to realise its politically-important goal of doubling GDP in real terms between 2010 and 2020, according to our calculations.
One of the main threats to China’s economic growth is the country’s ongoing trade war with the United States. While it is difficult to predict how the dispute will play out in the near term, both sides stand to gain from reaching a deal to lower trade barriers.
Donald Trump, in particular, can ill afford to risk a recession ahead of the 2020 US presidential election and trade policy is the main tool he has at his disposal for spurring growth.
Indeed, since our 2020 Outlook report was published, the US and China have confirmed that they have
concluded a 'phase one' trade deal which involves the US reducing some tariffs and suspending new tariffs that were due to take effect on December 15.
While the trade war won’t be resolved overnight, we expect its negative effects to be offset by positive factors including increased infrastructure investment supported by fiscal spending, faster project approvals, and the lowering of the project capital requirement.
Signs of recovery in
South Korea
Another major Asian economy, South Korea, will see GDP growth of 2.2 per cent, according to our analysis. This is slightly lower than our previous forecast of 2.4 per cent, reflecting weaker-than-expected export momentum so far, but it is still above the market consensus of 1.9–2 per cent.
The country’s exports are still in decline, but the latest data (for the first 20 days of November) shows that the rate of decline has slowed to 9.6 per cent from 19.5 per cent the previous month, a sign that economic conditions are improving.
There are other indicators of recovery, including an improvement in the manufacturing capacity utilisation rate and a modest climb in retail sales.
Aside from the shrinking export sector, the main risk to South Korea’s 2020 growth is weak construction investment, exacerbated by tight housing-market regulations.
We believe that this will be offset by the government’s decision to increase the infrastructure investment budget for 2020 by 12.9 per cent, a move which should boost the civil engineering sector.
Reasons for optimism in South Africa
Moving away from Asia, we anticipate GDP growth of 1.8 per cent in 2020 and 2 per cent in 2021 for South Africa.
These growth rates, though sluggish, are slightly better than those predicted by the government and the South African Reserve Bank.
Our 2020 forecast takes into account a likely rise in consumption following years of household balance-sheet repair, improving confidence and private sector-credit growth, and a pick-up in investment from exceptionally weak levels.
Better, but still below consensus for the euro area and UK
Meanwhile, the 2020 economic outlook for the euro area and the UK has improved slightly on reduced fears over global trade and Brexit. Our GDP growth forecasts for the two economies have been upgraded to reflect this more positive outlook but they remain below the market consensus.
According to our calculations, the euro area’s GDP will grow by 0.9 per cent in 2020 (previously 0.7 per cent).
The risk of a 'no deal' Brexit in January has subsided and it looks unlikely that the US will implement planned tariffs on European cars.
However, exogenous threats remain, including uncertainty over trade relations with the UK and slower growth in the US and China, causing us to revise our 2021 growth forecast downward from 1.2 per cent to 1 per cent.
Meanwhile, we have lifted our 2020 growth
forecast for the UK from 0.5 per cent to 1 per cent to account for the diminished risk of an imminent hard Brexit."
We’ve also raised our forecast for 2021 from 1 per cent to 1.2 per cent to reflect our expectation that fiscal
stimulus measures will alleviate some of the headwinds that will likely emerge in the aftermath of the UK’s departure from the European Union.
Prolonged Brexit uncertainty has weighed on the UK economy, dampening business sentiment and consumer confidence.
Negotiations on the future of the country’s trading relationship with the EU will be difficult and there is still a risk that the two sides will be forced to trade on WTO terms, to the detriment of the UK’s economy.
That said, the prospects of a smooth withdrawal from the EU at the end of January appear to have improved.
If the UK and EU can work out a trade deal next year, this will help alleviate uncertainty over the UK’s economic future.
New decade,
new challenges
Throughout the past few decades, the global economy has seen healthy growth supported mainly by emerging economies in Asia.
As the world moves into the 2020s, the main risks to growth will include debt burdens in several major economies, notably China and India; worldwide demographic declines; and rising anti-globalisation sentiment and protectionism.
The long-term future of the global economy will depend on how these challenges are addressed.
And, increasingly, it will be emerging markets setting the agenda.
**Inclusion and influence**
**What would a world with 50/50
gender parity look like?**
A Standard Chartered perspective
What will it take for workplaces to be truly family-oriented for men and women, and to have no female leaders
– only leaders?
Globally, gender disparity is still vast. On average women are paid USD11,000 a year compared to the USD20,000 annual salary of men, as per a 2017 World Economic Forum report. Women also undertake close to five hours of unpaid work a day, compared to less than two hours a day by men.
Countries like the United Arab Emirates are pushing gender equality at the highest level. In 2018, a presidential decree stated that representation of Emirati women on the Federal National Council, the FNC, would increase to 50 per cent.
This move underlines the country's desire to achieve full empowerment of Emirati women and emphasises their pioneering role in all sectors. Here’s how other countries are working towards putting an end to gender inequalities.
Women made up one-quarter of executive leadership teams in Australia’s top-200 companies in 2019.
There will be more girls and women in school, jobs and leadership
Even in developed areas and well-intentioned organisations, gender biases persist at all levels. Globally, literacy rates can still be as low as 44 female youths to every 100 male youths in some countries, according to UNICEF.
In Australia, a recent survey found women hold just 6 per cent of chief executive positions. Yet, research shows that they are often perceived by their co-workers as better-performing than their male counterparts.
"I believe that women also need to step up, come forward and be bold to accept challenging roles", says Ayesha Abbas, Value Centre General Manager, Head of Priority and Premium Banking, UAE, Standard Chartered.
Abbas adds, “What has been more prevalent, however, is the perception that women best fit HR, customer experience, admin kind of roles. But over time, women have shown that they can also be strategic thinkers, sound leaders and technical experts. It is up to us as women to break that barrier of perception and prove the world otherwise.”
Gender equality in the
workplace will
be a given
Some research findings have supported the idea that men and women are largely similar in psychology, including in reasoning and personality traits; the concept is known as the gender similarities hypothesis.
Despite this, pervasive stereotypes still dictate that men make better, more assertive leaders, while women are more nurturing and sensitive.
Eliminating the effects of these stereotypes could establish a gender-blind future where employees are credited for their achievements alone. Men in the workplace have a key role to play in this – and their support starts with accurately recognising workplace inequalities that women still face.
One study found several discrepancies between men and women’s perception of gender inequality at work.
Men were found to give significantly higher ratings than women on the support and opportunities that they believed their female colleagues were given. Greater awareness is the first step towards enforcing change for good.
Ruchika Tulshyan, author of 'The Diversity Advantage: Fixing Gender Inequality in the Workplace' said it would be wonderful to see more types of leadership models in place; not just the command-and-control style which is most often offered up as the way to lead.
"I’ve interviewed many male leaders who talk about how that style has felt very uncomfortable for them, but they just didn’t see any alternatives. I would imagine our world would be so much more inclusive, where we would allow people to be more human at work."
Male characters in top movies still outnumber women by 2.24 to 1.
Workplaces will become truly family-oriented for both women and men
Many corporations today claim to be family-oriented and emphasise the importance of work-life balance. However, a 2019 UK study found that parents who work part-time still face challenges in their career progression.
And it’s not only women who struggle to balance work and family. In the same UK study, working couples reported that men find it more difficult to take time off work for eldercare.
Although women are the primary caretakers in most households, family members shouldn’t be forced into roles by social norms and unequal concessions.
The New Zealand parliament gained international praise recently for its openly child-friendly practices.
Speaker Trevor Mallard even presided over parliament proceedings while holding and bottle feeding a colleague’s newborn.
As of 2018, the country ranks seventh out of 149 countries in global gender equality.
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics female athletes will represent 48.8 per cent of participants.
A world with gender parity is not out of reach. On getting to where she is and encouraging everyone to champion gender equality, Abbas added, “You need to first raise your hand and make it known that you are ready to take up challenges… You have got to make it happen!”
This article is produced with permission of Standard Chartered Bank, it was based on a Global Research Report originally published on December 3, 2019. It is subject to the Standard Chartered Bank General Disclaimer which is available on https://research.sc.com/Portal/Utilities/TermsConditions
How diverse do you feel your organisation is?
- Very inclusive
- Inclusive
- Somewhat inclusive
- Not inclusive
**Business
sentiment 2020**
**A brief snapshot**
Global economic growth 2020
Respondents to CNBC's survey, commissioned by Standard Chartered, had differing opinions on global economic growth in 2020.
Reasons for 39 per cent of leaders believing global conditions will improve in 2020 are based around a number of factors such as benign financial conditions continuing and a modest recovery in emerging markets.
Conversely, 32 per cent of leaders are bearish due to a range of factors such as a continuing global trade war, a slowing Chinese economy and the uncertainty around the upcoming US presidential election.
Moreover, the euro area continues to slow, with the region’s largest economy (Germany) currently caught in a slowdown, according to the German government’s Federal Statistics Office.
Geopolitical threats continue to be the biggest handbrake on global growth.
Worldwide growth continues to slow despite stimulus packages from central banks and strong markets.
Climate change remains one of the great existential challenges of our time.
Digital disruption and the issues associated with a connected world remain a threat.
November's US Presidential election promises to be one of the year's most decisive and divisive events.
There are a number of big threats in play contributing to a sense of unease among global business executives. Geopolitical threats reign supreme, as the world continues to wrestle with trade wars, and the drawn out process of Brexit – among other issues. At the same time, the climate change debate seems to be reaching a crescendo, especially after the breakdown of negotiations at the recent climate summit in Madrid. And finally, companies continue to confront the challenges associated with digital transformation.
"While we are seeing the effects of climate change and they are real, the biggest imminent threat to businesses globally is geopolitical risk… leaving businesses caught between nations with little they can do."
Annabelle Chiong, Deputy Director of Venture Investing – SGInnovate
The top-five threats: Preparedness
of respondents feel confident they are prepared for geopolitical uncertainty.
believe they can cope with a recession.
are on their way in their journey to combat climate change.
of global business executives are prepared to meet with the twin challenges of cyber security and data privacy.
respondents feel they are well prepared for a bumpy US-election year.
Global business leaders report their levels of preparedness differ according to the type of threats set to shape 2020. While just under one-third of respondents believe they are well prepared for geopolitical headwinds, only 10 per cent believe they are prepared for the US Presidential election.
Part of the reason for the relative bearishness from business leaders is that we’re living in rather febrile times. The uncertainty of the last few years looks set to continue, according to a range of sources including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Digital transformation: State of play
Slow to embark – by country
When asked about digital transformation, most respondents acknowledged they had begun their journey, but there were some slow to embark. This was most notable in the US, with 36 per cent of respondent companies noting they were nowhere close to starting their digital journey. Conversely, the city-state of Singapore and its much smaller, typically digitally-savvy populace and digital-supportive government reported 93 per cent of its businesses had embarked on their digital transformation journey.
Transformation isn’t window dressing —
it starts from the top and means
everything, the whole DNA of an
organisation, needs to change. And
while some businesses are on the right
track, they still have a long way to go."
Gil Forer, Global Markets Digital and Business
Disruption Leader – EY
The opportunities: Growth industries
38% of global business executives believe technology and communications
...will be the top growth prospect in 2020 with one good reason —Internet of Things (IoT). With the advent of 5G technology, the global number of devices embedded with sensors will leap from 8.4 billion in 2017 to 20.4 billion in 2020, according to research group Gartner.
26% of respondents suggest real opportunity lies in renewable energy
...in 2020. Acknowledging this opportunity aligns with UN figures showing USD2.6 trillion of investment in renewable energy capacity (excluding large hydro) from 2010-19, more than treble the amount invested in the previous decade.
26% of respondents believe healthcare, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology
...represent the largest potential for growth in 2020. IoT could be part of the answer on the medical front, as it promises to revolutionise personalised medicine ranging from preventative health to individualised immune treatments for diseases and 3D printing of organs.
Food technology promised to be a major area of growth
...according to 20 per cent of survey respondents. The world needs to feed itself and the key is to use fewer resources. Start-ups around the world are advancing numerous technologies such as vertical farming which uses fewer resources, and finding alternatives to resource-draining meat and seafood.
The world continues to travel and 15% of respondents
...believe travel and tourism will continue to grow, especially as more citizens in countries such as China, Indonesia and India join the world’s middle classes.
Survey respondents indicated where they believe real growth lies in the year ahead
"The US and Asia are regions we are expecting to continue growing for us. In the US, we are established as the largest crude oil exporter and this is expected to continue into 2020."
Nicolas Marsac, CFO Asia Pacific – Trafigura.
"In the long term, Africa may have more growth opportunities than Asia, because it’s starting at a low base."
Michael Silver, President Global Business Development – Universal Parks & Resorts.
"While Southern China is very actively moving ahead, India is the next China opportunity and Southeast Asia is definitely booming."
Rebecca A. Fannin, Founder – Silicon Dragon Ventures.
**Future finance**
**Experts brace for LIBOR day**
The way banks charge each other interest is set to change – creating a multi-trillion-dollar challenge for markets.
Called variously ‘bigger than Brexit’ or ‘the largest banking challenge you’ve never heard of’, regulators have specified that the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) will cease to exist after 2021.
Affecting everything from derivatives, securities, loans and mortgages, LIBOR is estimated to underpin USD340 trillion in financial contracts and has held sway over the interest rates banks charge each other for short-term unsecured loans for decades.
During the 2007-2008 financial crisis, however, LIBOR began to behave in an unexpected manner compared to other market benchmarks. The UK and US regulators and prosecutors scrutinised the benchmark and how it was calculated, ultimately concluding that it was subject to manipulation.
This ‘LIBOR scandal’ sparked calls for deeper reform of the entire LIBOR system as regulators remained concerned that LIBOR was not a reliable benchmark given the relative lack of underlying transactions in the interbank lending market that LIBOR was meant to measure.
LIBOR panel banks – a selection of banks that lend one another unsecured funds on the London money market – were also increasingly reluctant to contribute quotes.
The industry now seeks a wholesale move to so-called risk-free rates (RFRs) anchored in actual transactions – with the preferred RFRs for the affected LIBOR currencies already identified by industry working groups. Indeed, the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England have been publishing the calculated SOFR and SONIA rates, respectively, since April 2018. And in October 2019, the European Central Bank began calculating and publishing an alternative to LIBOR – ESTR (Euro short-term rate) – on the European market.
Where RFRs had previously lacked volume, the industry as a whole is now evolving to offer viable alternatives to the interbank offered rates (IBORs) in a post-LIBOR world, according to the Bank of International Settlements.[1]
For banks, institutional investors and corporates, however, transition issues loom large, requiring resources in terms of manpower, money and cogent action plans.
According to the Bank of International Settlement (BIS)[2], there’s unlikely to be a “Swiss Army knife solution” for benchmark rates; each RFR – be it SONIA in the United Kingdom, SOFR in the United States, TONA in Japan or ESTER in the European Union – is likely to grow according to its strengths. The value of bonds issued in 2019 linked to SOFR surged to USD73 billion, up from USD7.7 billion in 2018.
For other markets, given the importance of credit-sensitive term benchmarks, the ‘two-benchmark’ approach provides the flexibility for market participants to choose the benchmark that is most appropriate for their circumstances and market needs.
In this case, authorities have opted to complement the RFRs with reformed and improved local IBOR-type rates. In Japan, a reformed TIBOR will coexist with TONA; and in the euro area, there is an ongoing effort to reform EURIBOR to complement ESTER.
Huge impact
on markets
The most pressing concern is the migration of legacy LIBOR-linked exposures to the new benchmarks when LIBOR publication ceases after 2021.
Trillions of dollars of legacy contracts will still be outstanding at that time and the results of not constructing adequate fallbacks in LIBOR-referencing contracts is potentially catastrophic.
The Financial Stability Board has highlighted good progress on the transition from LIBOR in many derivatives and securities markets, but progress in cash markets has been slower, and needs to accelerate.
As we enter 2020, floating-rate note (FRN) issuers and investors are increasingly being urged to transition away from LIBOR-linked benchmarks towards the use of alternative RFRs in their new contracts – and to ensure their legacy contracts include sufficiently-robust fall-back language.
This is to avoid the risk of their FRNs converting to fixed rates in the event of a permanent cessation of LIBOR, with the potential to create losses for the unwary and equally huge windfalls for others.
According to Andrew Dixon-Smith, Head of Legal, Global & Commercial Banking, Standard Chartered, the scale of the transition is largely underestimated.
"It's probably one of the biggest events in financial markets for decades,” he said. “And I don't think that the market quite appreciates that."
Indifference is simply not an option. It's important for corporates not to ignore it – and we would encourage more engagement and awareness across the market."
Corporates are likely to have a varied number of products with the banking sector and in many cases, they would also be cross, or multi-banked, making transition issues all the more complex.
Transition phase
When it comes to transition, ultimately corporate treasurers would want the derivatives side to be aligned with the lending side.
“That's not necessarily the case right now,” said Dixon-Smith. “The market has not fully settled on the adjustments required for the risk-free rates as fallbacks – and there is a need to develop the liquidity in the RFR fallbacks required to make for an effective transition.”
Key to this transition will be repricing, he said, which will require critical changes to bank systems.
For John Ho, Standard Chartered’s Head of Legal, Financial Markets, corporates and banks need to realise that the changes will go beyond simply redrafting contracts.
It's not just a repapering exercise, it's a wholesale change in respect to the way you price trade, to the way you structure,
market or book trades.
Regulators would expect firms to address any operational, financial resilience, business
model and conduct risks posed by the transition."
In September 2019, the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC) released a practical implementation checklist to help market participants transition away from US dollar LIBOR to using SOFR.
The checklist covers 10 key areas where action is needed in order for impacted firms to prepare for the transition to SOFR.
These include governance, communications, risk management, contract remediation, and operational readiness.
When it comes to bank preparation, it’s as much about helping clients as it is about their own impact analysis.
According to Dixon-Smith it’s incumbent on banks and their clients to keep the dialogue open. “We encourage corporates to interact with their banks,” he says.
Worryingly for many banks, contracts that require term rates are still being referenced to LIBOR.
At the root of the problem is that while RFRs have a solid past based on actual transactions, they are
overnight rates, whereas LIBOR is published across a number of maturity periods. Unlike LIBOR, RFRs do not contain an embedded term or credit risk premium.
In contrast, a significant volume of cash products such as loans linked to LIBOR have forward-looking term rates, meaning borrowers have certainty over future liabilities and can manage cash flows more easily.
The transition will be most challenging for cash markets because of the bespoke nature of contracts and structurally tighter links to interbank offered rates. In reaction, the UK industry working group for transition has proposed to cease issuance of cash products linked to Sterling LIBOR by Q3 2020.
Whilst certain jurisdictions are working on forward-looking term
rates, it's not certain that these will be developed before 2021-end. According to Ho, regulators have urged market participants to press on with LIBOR transition and not wait for these term rates to arrive.
Such benchmark reform is sure to create an administrational load as LIBOR’s demise draws near.
While there are some that may be hoping benchmark headaches will be regulated out of existence by the time LIBOR is dead and buried, analysts say it’s a misplaced hope.
I think it’s better to prepare than to wait
and see. Transition will require huge resources in terms
of IT support and no one will want to be left hanging."
“People need to start thinking about this, what it means for their organisation and to have a clear plan of action across a range of touchpoints. Firms with LIBOR exposure should fully understand their exposures and risks, seek to reduce reliance on LIBOR and engage in transition efforts”, concludes Ho.
Given the degree of risk arising from the continued reliance on LIBOR, market participants should expect increasing regulatory scrutiny of their transition efforts as the end of 2021 approaches.
[1][2] Bank of International Settlements, 2019. 'Beyond LIBOR: a primer
on the new benchmark rates'.
How prepared is your organisation for LIBOR?
- Very prepared
- Prepared
- Somewhat prepared
- Unprepared
- Very unprepared
**In the know**
**Many minds make co-creation work**
Venerable financial institutions are embracing a start-up culture, increasingly collaborating to meet their customers ever-changing needs
Technology is wreaking a disruptive trail in the traditional banking sector and as a result, banks are increasingly turning to both their clients and fintechs to develop new products that will better fit client needs.
Clients themselves are far more demanding these days – vanilla solutions are less and less accepted.
“Clients want to see their banking partners take the initiative,” said Paul Skelton, Head of Global Banking at Standard Chartered.
To stay relevant in an increasingly-digital world, banks have to work beyond their silos, he added. And it’s not just the digital prowess of fintechs that banks need to welcome into their product-development processes.
Clients themselves have access to more information than ever – enabling them with greater acumen to self-diagnose their needs.
“Two heads are better than one. Three heads are even better,” noted Skelton.
We believe such
multi-collaboration will
become the
future standard
within financial services."
This process of co-creation marks a shift away from the traditional product development model where sales/ marketing departments conduct market research, which is then handed to engineers to build a solution.
“The risk of the traditional approach is that products may not be fit for market requirements – but by the time this becomes apparent, money has been spent, time has lapsed and individuals and egos involved refuse to admit failure, so the products are pushed anyway,” said Alex Manson, Global Head of Standard Chartered’s innovation lab SC Ventures.
One new approach consists of testing a small version of the product very early on with customers, getting feedback, iterating the prototype and getting more feedback.
Further iterations would continue as many times as it takes to generate a product where confidence levels over client adoption is much higher than the traditional model.
In practice, the approach requires ongoing involvement from clients – either a single large client or a representative sample – in the form of structured workshops, for instance. “We look at it through the lens of the client every step of the way,” added Manson.
Only once the concept is proven would we go through a production environment at scale."
An example of a recent such project is the partnership between
Standard Chartered, Siemens Financial Services and fintech TradeIX.
Together, they created an industry-first client pilot of a blockchain-based smart guarantees proposition for trade finance.
Banks have moved on from regarding fintechs as competitors – and instead recognise the benefits of their new approaches to solving client problems.
As such, fintechs are increasingly involved as a third contributor in the co-creation process.
According to management consultancy McKinsey, for companies that figure out how to co-create well, the rewards can be far greater than a more effective and efficient R&D organisation.
More importantly, it's a core capability for unleashing the vast ingenuity of outsiders on an organisation’s biggest challenges.
A good example of co-creation unleashing collaborative potential is the recent e-Payments Challenge hosted by Worldline, a market leader in payment and transaction services in Europe. The challenge was a unique hackathon that speeds up the innovation-to-business cycle.
Commenting on the hackathon, the Deputy CEO of Worldline, Marc-Henri Desportes, spoke about how most of the solutions that emerged from the intense collaboration between startups, clients and our experts “are much more than creative ideas: they deliver clear solutions with full implementation potential.”
"Ultimately, the optimum results from co-creation are derived as a result of diversity – where multidisciplinary skill sets from a diverse group of people come together to create something unique. But for banking solutions, it’s still crucial that bankers remain involved in the process", said Manson.
Bankers are crucial to
help ground things. Excluding them was a mistake that a lot of the
labs with design thinkers
and technologists made
initially, which wasn’t grounded on
commercial sense."
To Manson, these projects are about changing the way banks operate as they adapt for the future – via new ways of thinking and new business models.
“It’s not really about technology. Technology is always present, and we use it all the time. It’s about rewiring banks’ DNA,” he said.
Recognising Standard Chartered in 2019
Picking up the World’s Best Bank for Sustainable Finance award in Global Finance’s annual listing of the best banks is testament to the strides Standard Chartered has made using finance to tackle climate and sustainability challenges.
The Bank’s place as a global sustainability leader was also recognised – and it was named the World’s number-one Bank for Blended Finance,– where private capital leverages donor flows to support development impact.
Winning World’s Best Sub-Custodian Bank at the Global Finance World’s Best Sub-custodian Banks Awards was not only a reward for Standard Chartered’s deep relations with sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East, but also recognition for the Bank’s expansion in the region.
Standard Chartered’s assets under custody expanded sharply in the region in 2018, and its revenue from securities services more than doubled.
An innovative funding strategy called the Synthetic Borrowing Unit (SBU) composed of a basket of G10, Asian and emerging market currencies, played a major role in Standard Chartered winning the Currency Derivatives House of the Year at the Asia Risk Awards 2019.
The SBU was introduced to offset risks involved with currency market volatility in illiquid markets prone to large swings, and is one of a number of products rolled out by Standard Chartered designed to minimise currency risk for clients.
In an award-laden year, Standard Chartered also picked up three FinanceAsia House Awards. The Bank was honoured with achievement awards for Green Financing – International; Project Finance House – International; and Syndicated Loan – International.
Towards a
sustainable future
When global business and government leaders gather for Davos 2020 from January 21 to 24, they will be rallying around the theme of 'Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World'.
The annual Swiss event, organised by the World Economic Forum, will bring together 3,000 participants and aims to give concrete meaning to stakeholder capitalism, assist governments and international institutions in tracking progress towards the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals, and facilitate discussions on technology and trade governance.
International Women's
Day 2020
Standard Chartered has embraced the International Women’s Day 2020 theme of #EachforEqual and are taking a leadership role in hosting a series of a gender-equal events around the world.
This leadership role is further evidenced by Standard Chartered’s own commitment to having women occupy 30 per cent of its senior roles by next year.
Which of the articles did you enjoy the most?
- Opportunities for growth
- Global economic outlook 2020
- Inclusion and influence
- Business sentiment 2020
- Future finance
- In the know
- News in brief
