StanChart's global footprint a big plus for Belt and Road
Singapore
STANDARD Chartered's global corporate and institutional banking business is building off momentum that may see a greater boost from demands along One Belt One Road, said Simon Cooper, the CEO of the global bank's largest business division.
This follows double-digit growth in network income for the first half of 2017, with more than 80 new OECD-based corporate and institutional banking clients on-boarded in the first six months.
Following his appointment in April 2016, Mr Cooper set up a global banking unit to cut silos that clients have to get through to get their financing in order. He also set up a capital structure and distribution group that again manages financing needs based on the clients' demand.
"Ultimately, you have to have a relationship manager who is like the orchestrator, the conductor of the relationship, to make sure that you are giving clients the best service," said Mr Cooper, who was formerly the chief executive of HSBC's global commercial banking.
"Rather than having a bond team competing with a syndicated loan team, we bring them together and say: 'How can we maximise the resources of the firm, globally?' "
The moves by StanChart and similar ones by other global banks reflect a push from the banking industry to be more efficient so client flows are not lost through the labyrinth of large financial institutions.
Mr Cooper sees the bank as separating itself from the pack by relying on a unique network that offers some "direct correlation" with China's One Belt One Road route - a route that he said will provide a dominant source of trade and capital investment flows.
The bank's global footprint overlaps with 67 per cent of the One Belt One Road countries. Its largest market is Hong Kong, a market that is heavily tied to investment flows related to China.
Notably, Standard Chartered still has a presence in parts of Africa. Trade between Africa and China has burgeoned from US$10 billion in 2000 to US$220 billion in 2014.
Standard Chartered recently arranged about US$500 million in financing for the Ministry of Finance in Zambia for infrastructure projects that would improve water supplies and medical services to the people in the country in Southern Africa. The bank also provided US$575 million in financing for a separate power project in Zambia.
"One of the things that I've tried to do is to say 'to whom is that network really unique to? To whom is it really an advantage?' It's an advantage for companies and businesses domiciled in the network, but it's also a real advantage to those businesses that are global multinationals," said Mr Cooper.
"Many of those businesses have regional treasury centres sitting in Singapore. So again, one of the things that Standard Chartered can do is to use that global network, to hopefully promote and drive the businesses through Singapore," added Mr Cooper, who is based in Singapore.
What works to the bank's advantage is that Singapore's investments in China account for 85 per cent of total Belt and Road investments there by all countries, according to data cited by the Singapore government.
The bank has a Belt and Road strategy execution team, with at least one Singaporean, Sebastian Er, making up part of that team. Mr Er, based in Shanghai, has spent nearly a decade of his career working in China and in his latest role, travels to meet clients in countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh, to look at potential areas of collaboration. Mr Er's career development fits into the bank's efforts to develop the financial talent in Singapore, said Mr Cooper.
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