Wholesale banking boosts Standard Chartered

Indeed, the global downturn hit all of Standard's consumer markets and, overall, the bank's consumer operating profit fell 57 per cent year-on-year to $348m (£206m). Standard's core Asian markets were especially hard hit. The Korean consumer business, for instance, turned last year's $87m operating profit into an $11m loss, while the other Asia-Pacific division made a $65m loss, compared to last year's $77m profit. And the Hong Kong consumer business saw profits fall 30 per cent to $227m. The consumer division's loan impairment charge grew 37 per cent from $412m to $563m, partly reflecting the effects of rising unemployment and delinquencies in key markets in the unsecured loan book.

But it's a different picture at the wholesale division. Buoyed by factors such as market volatility, improved trading income and one-off fees from big transactions, the wholesale unit grew operating profit 36 per cent year-on-year to a record $2.25bn. In fact, profits for the first half of 2009 almost equalled that for the whole of 2008 and that's after wholesale loan impairment charges soared from just $53m last year to $525m. The Singaporean and African wholesale businesses performed especially well - operating profits there grew 85 per cent and 98 per cent, respectively. And last year’s $243m loss in the Americas, UK and Europe unit was turned into a healthy $105m profit.

Standard looks fairly well capitalised, too, boasting a core tier 1 capital (regulatory) ratio of 7.6 per cent. After announcing a $1bn placing alongside these results, the bank will bolster its capital strength further still - add in the new funds and that core tier one ratio rises to 8.4 per cent. Furthermore, the $230bn retail deposit book more than covers the $183bn loan book.

Prior to these figures, Charles Stanley was expecting full-year EPS of 153c (202c: 2008).