Last year marked the tenth year in a row in which Standard Chartered, the London-listed bank, posted a net profit. Showing a profit of just over 1 percentage point in 2012 despite being hit with a large fine for dealing with Iran against the international sanctions placed on that country.
Standard Chartered inched out its black figure by riding on the wave of excellent expansion on the Asian scene.
The bank reported a pre-tax profit of $6.9 billion during 2012, just surpassing 2011 profits of $6.8 billion. The profits were a bit of an anti-climax considering the fact that analysts had forecast total pre-tax profits for Standard Chartered would reach $7 billion.
The bank has been riding high on strong growth in Asia, and said that it hired almost 2,000 new employees during 2012. They added that they expect to hire a similar number of new employees this coming year as well.
“Standard Chartered remains a growth story and we are sticking to our strategy, focusing on the basics of good banking, in markets we know well, with clients and customers with whom we have deep relationships,” Chairman John Peace said.