Standard Chartered wrestles with inflation as it eyes metaverse profits
Standard Chartered has continued to wrestle with rising inflation, which is expected to hit double digits by the end of this year.
The British bank’s income inched some nine per cent higher $4.3bn in the first quarter of this year, while return on tangible equity of jumped a little over 11 per cent.
Chief executive Bill Winters said the performance was “strong despite the volatile macro environment” with banks and businesses alike wrestling with inflationary headwinds.
Winters added that the London-headquartered bank is “track to deliver 10 per cent return on tangible equity by 2024, if not earlier.”
The bank’s so-called ‘Seize China’ strategy saw its China and ASEAN, the international organisation of Southeast Asian countries, network income rise more than a third year-on-year.
However, a poor performance in Hong Kong pushed its overall wealth management growth to fall by 17 per cent, the equivalent of $100m.
The lender earlier this week announced plans to push into the metaverse, snapping up a plot of land in decentralised gaming world The Sandbox for an undisclosed sum – as money continues to poor into the digital space.
Standard’s Hong Kong subsidiary on Monday became the first bank to acquire virtual property in The Sandbox’s ‘Mega City’ district, which is thematically designed around Hong Kong.