StanChart may increase Singapore staff to service Japan customers

Tokyo

STANDARD Chartered plc, the UK bank that's cutting US$400 million of costs, will consider starting a desk in Dubai for Japanese corporate clients that wish to expand business in the Middle East.

The bank may also increase staff in Singapore to service Japanese customers that want to boost operations in South-east Asia, Yasunori Takeuchi, chief executive officer for Japan, said. The move would help to bolster the London-based bank's Japanese business, which employs just 170 workers out of Standard Chartered's more than 86,000 staff members. The company closed its Japan wealth-management business in 2012 and is preparing to eliminate thousands of jobs worldwide as part of its cost-cutting drive.