StanChart shares jump on restructuring moves

Shares of Standard Chartered, the Asia-focussed bank listed in London, rose sharply on Friday, as details of a memo sent by CEO Bill Winters, lent strength to hopes that he was prepared to take the bold moves many investors had felt necessary at the bank.

According to the internal memo sent to staff by Winters, seen by Reuters, up to 1,000 senior members of staff — or one in four of the 4,000 staff who are at director level or above — could go as a result of the restructuring.

“Our situation requires decisive and immediate action. Each member of the management team has a mission to drive through improvements in our returns and part of this will be further streamlining in our returns and part of this will be further streamlining of our organisation, eliminating management layers and duplication of roles,” wrote Winters who took over in June, according to Reuters.

In an e-mailed response to BusinessLine , a spokesperson for the bank confirmed that it had already begun to reduce management layers and that there would be 25 per cent fewer senior staff.

Winters had “made it clear that kick-starting performance is a priority, and we are not standing still. We have a clear sense of our direction of travel and the key areas of focus — superior execution, targeted investments, divestment where we are not advantaged and innovation in our product and process design.”

Since joining the bank, Winters — the former co-head of investment banking at JP Morgan and commissioner on Britain’s high profile post financial crisis independent banking commission — has begun to take swift action. Shares of the bank were up 5.3 per cent in mid-afternoon trading in London.

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