Standard Chartered sees subdued growth in Hong Kong consumer banking ops this yr |
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Thu, 01 Mar 2007 06:57
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HONG KONG (XFN-ASIA) - Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) said it sees subdued growth in its consumer banking business this year due to intense competition in the market.Executive director and chief executive officer Peter Sullivan told a media briefing that it will be difficult for the bank's consumer banking business in Hong Kong to see double-digit growth in income this year due to aggressive competition, especially in home mortgage and credit card businesses.Sullivan said the combined income from consumer and wholesale banking businesses is, however, likely to see double-digit growth this year.He said he remains cautious about the bank's performance in mortgage and credit card business, though he expects the property market to do better than last year.He added that the bank will focus more on SME (small and medium enterprises) loan business, wealth management and wholesale banking rather than the mortgage business in the near term.Standard Chartered reported earlier this week that its Hong Kong operations posted net profit of 6.03 bln hkd in 2006, up 32.82 pct from 4.54 bln achieved in the previous year.Consumer banking business unit in Hong Kong achieved record operating profit of 538 mln usd last year, up 2.08 pct from 527 mln usd in 2005, while wholesale banking unit generated operating profit of 350 mln usd, up 84 pct year-on-year.roby.lau@xfn.comgl/rl/rc
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Standard Chartered Hong Kong ops 2006 net profit 6.03 bln hkd vs 4.54 bln UPDATE 