Jeremy Warner's Oulook: Sands peerless among bankers – for now
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Please give it up for P-e-e-e-ter Sands, the utterly brilliant chief executive of Standard Chartered ... Yay. No, I'm not kidding. Mervyn Davies, the chairman, really did invite analysts at yesterday's results presentation to give Mr Sands a round of applause for what, by comparison with other banks' reporting figures this week, were outstanding numbers.
In many respects, it was well deserved. If you met him in the street, you wouldn't think Mr Sands was a banker at all. Intellectual and understated in manner, he's often quite casually dressed (he wears a Swatch rather the banker's timepiece of preference, a Rolex). Yet he's plainly highly effective. While everyone else is reporting figures devastated by the credit crunch, Mr Sands yesterday unveiled a 31 per cent jump in first-half profits.
But don't think it's all down to clever risk management. Standard Chartered may be a London-based bank, but three-quarters of its profits come from Asia, where it has been riding the emerging markets boom.
Mr Sands expects this growth to moderate from here on in, but to remain well ahead of almost everywhere else. "The Bank is in great shape," he insists, and well positioned to exploit opportunities. Great stuff, yet in banking it is always unwise to crow. It's entirely plausible that Asia will be the next shoe to drop in the unfolding crisis. If so, it will be brickbats rather than applause that greets him next time.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments