Standard Chartered Bank reported its first annual loss in 26 years on Tuesday, weighed down by heavy restructuring costs and a global slowdown, and warned of a subdued year ahead and the necessity of more painful action to restore growth.
The bank lost US$1.5 billion in 2015 after costs of US$1.8 billion to cover restructuring and redundancies in South Korea and elsewhere. Excluding the charge, the bank reported a pretax profit of US$834 million, an 84 per cent decline from 2014 and below the average analyst estimate of US$896.5 million.
It will still pay shareholders a dividend, but its top directors wont get a bonus for 2015.
StanChart is the second big bank in as many days to report weak earnings, after HSBCs 2015 profit came in mu…
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