StanChart slashes Africa and Middle East business to lift profit

Standard Chartered Bank said on Thursday it will scale back its activities in Africa and the Middle East, as it seeks to cut costs and focus on more profitable markets.

The bank will fully exit from Angola, Cameroon, Gambia, Jordan, Lebanon, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe.

It will also halt its retail banking activities in Tanzania and Ivory Coast to focus solely on corporate banking.

The move represents a major turnaround for Standard Chartered, which has been one of the largest European banks to have invested in the region in the past few years at a time when other banks have pulled out.

The bank said reducing its activities would allow it to focus on larger and faster-growing economies in the region such as Saudi Arabia, where it opened its first branch, as well as Egypt.

The bank added that the markets from which it will exit achieved about one percent of total income in 2021 and a similar percentage of profits before tax. Standard Chartered is currently present in 59 markets and serves clients in 83 other markets.