Standard Chartered's Excuses Ring Hollow

Bareksa.com - A profits warning at Standard Chartered, Peter, and talk about reversal of fortune. This was the bank that had record breaking growth for about a decade. Now they say their financial markets business is going to drop by about 20 percent in the first half of this year. That's right Tara, and really it is very much it's gone from feast to famine at Standard Chartered, and it looks like a second year of famine. And really our view on this is that this is very much putting pressure on, the latest setback is very much putting pressure on the top team at Standard Chartered to show that they have a grip on the business. They're clearly blaming the external environment for the setbacks in the business. They're talking about slowdown in the fact that they are in India, which is not doing well, they are in Korea. Now banks in both those countries are not doing well so Standard Chartered would feel some of that pain. And the financial markets business is saying, 'well everyone is this trouble with new regulation, low volatility and markets and so forth.' But I think the problem really is that from the outside investors are really wondering why does the bank keep springing these negative surprises and to what extent does the senior management really have a grip on the extent on the problems.de investors are really wondering why does the bank keep springing these negative surprises and to what extent does the senior management really have a grip on the extent on the problems. (Source : Reuters)