Standard Chartered PLC reported its largest quarterly profit since the first quarter of 2014, as rising interest rates boosted its bottom line.
The London-headquartered bank yesterday reported adjusted pretax profits of US$1.71 billion, exceeding a Bloomberg-compiled analyst estimate of US$1.5 billion for the first three months of this year.
Net interest income, a key measure of profitability, increased 13 percent helped by markets such as Hong Kong and Singapore.
Photo: REUTERS
“Business performance continues to improve across our markets and products, and has been achieved in what continues to be an uncertain environment,” Standard Chartered chief executive officer Bill Winters said.
The bank remains “confident in the delivery of all of our financial targets,” and reiterated a plan to return more than US$5 billion to shareholders by next year.
Income this year is expected to grow about 10 percent, the top end of the lender’s range, the bank said.
Still, Standard Chartered did shrink its previous guidance for full-year average net interest margin, saying it would be about 170 basis points this year.
That is down 5 basis points from its forecast in February.
In Japan, Nomura Holdings Inc’s profit fell as fixed income trading revenues were hit by a spike in volatility last month and new deals slumped on muted client activity.
Net income slid 76 percent from a year earlier in the three months ended March 31 to ￥7.4 billion (US$55.4 million), Japan’s largest brokerage said in a statement yesterday.
NOMURA MISSES ESTIMATE
The figure missed an average estimate of ￥38.5 billion by four analysts polled by Bloomberg.
Nomura’s revenue fell 6 percent at the global markets unit, in line with the average decline in trading at five of the biggest Wall Street lenders.
Fixed income rose 9 percent despite the turbulence last month, while equities were down 21 percent.
The brokerage said it plans to buy back as much as ￥20 billion of shares, less than it announced a year ago.
While fixed income started the year strong, it slowed last month, the company said.
The past year was tough for investment banking, although deal origination should recover later this year, Nomura chief financial officer Takumi Kitamura said.
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