New Credit Rating for Standard Chartered Bank plc

The Senior Debt Rating of A+ (single A plus) reflects Standard Chartered Bank’s continued resilience to the Asian crisis and management’s strategy of taking advantage of the crisis to position the group for the eventual recovery in the region. Although SC’s year-end 1999 figures still had to contend with the hangover of the Asian crisis, the rise in loan loss provisions has noticeably slowed. In addition to this, 1999 figures also reflected management’s investment costs related to improving and developing the group’s businesses for the future, developing in parallel to the Asian recovery. This development programme has been complemented by the recent completed acquisitions of Nakornthon Bank in Thailand and UBS’ international trade finance business and the proposed acquisition of ANZ Grindlays Bank, announced on 28th April 2000. This last deal will position SC as the first or second international bank in countries such as, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the UAE and Sri Lanka, and move the group forward towards its stated aim of becoming the leading emerging market bank in the world. Successful integration of these acquisitions should help SC to maintain revenue generation capabilities ahead of the pace of the Asian recovery.

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