Standard Chartered to close parts of equity businesses, axe jobs

Standard Chartered, a Britain-based banking group, Thursday announced the closure of its institutional cash equities, equity research and equity capital market activities, as the bank continues to exit non-core and under-performing businesses.

The closure of the businesses will deliver around 100 million U.S. dollars of cost savings in 2016, but will impact about 200 roles across seven of the bank's 70 markets, said Standard Chartered in a statement.

The bank also said that in the Retail Clients segment, its strategy of focusing on key cities and accelerating the switch to digital has resulted in around 2,000 jobs cuts announced or completed in the last three months, with a reduction of a further 2,000 expected during 2015.

Peter Sands, the Group Chief Executive, said that:" We are continuing to take significant action on costs by exiting or re-configuring non-core and under-performing businesses, and by increasing the efficiency of our core businesses."

Standard Chartered posted a 16 percent fall in pre-tax profit in the third quarter of 2014 last October due to a restructuring of its South Korea business and an increase in bad loans.