Standard Chartered PLC (STAN) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning and good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Before I get into the second quarter performance, I want to step back and touch on a few things we discussed at our investor event in May. It was great to host many of you in Hong Kong. I hope the energy from the presentations and the discussions resonated with you and was a reminder of the momentum in our franchise. Our message was clear. We built a bank capable of delivering durable returns by sharpening our strategy, improving the balance sheet, Investing in infrastructure and focusing on areas where we have real competitive advantage. And most importantly, we're now moving from durable returns into compounding growth. Our super connector model is hard to replicate and highly valued by clients. Our strategy is aligned to long-term structural growth drivers. We have clear and measurable plans for continuous improvement in our productivity. Together, this supports exceptional growth and sustainably higher returns. Manus and I will cover these points over the course of the presentation. All of this gives us confidence to maintain clear milestones, above 15% ROTE in 2028 and around 18% in 2030. They are the output of a strategy that is working and a franchise positioned to compound over time. Turning to the quarter, we delivered another strong performance. The business continued to perform well with momentum across areas where we have been investing. Our cross-border network, wealth, CIB, financial institutions, and increasingly capital-light client-led businesses. This resulted in a record first-half performance with earnings per share up 17% year-on-year. We're upgrading our 2026 guidance for income to be around the middle of our 5-7% growth range year-on-year. This reflects the confidence in o...