StanChart in hint it could exit Britain

STANDARD Chartered has become the latest bank to suggest it could move its headquarters out of Britain.

Its hint of an exit came alongside a bleak set of results – the last under the leadership of beleaguered boss Peter Sands.

Three-month profits fell by 22pc to £1bn, while bad loans rose by 80pc as the group said trading remained challenging.

Under Sands’ tenure since November 2006 the value of the bank has shrunk by a quarter.

Shares, which have fallen 15pc in the last year, slipped another 3.2pc to finish 35.5p lower at 1080p.

Rival HSBC last week said it could shift its domicile from the UK to Hong Kong, splitting out its British bank as a separate firm at the same time. Standard Chartered has also come under pressure from some of its shareholders to look at moving overseas.

Finance boss Andy Halford said: ‘At the moment it’s something we’re watching, we’re looking at, we’re thinking about,’ though he added there were no plans to leave.

Analyst Chirantan Barua at Bernstein said: ‘The potential for HQ relocation (to Singapore) is gaining greater traction too given the material damage from a permanent and rising UK bank levy.’ The levy, introduced in 2010, has been raised several times by the Government as a way of raking in more from the financial sector – though it currently only stands at 0.21pc of the value of the bank’s balance sheet.

Standard Chartered expects to pay around £353m this year from the charge.

HSBC, the largest contributor, said that its decision to look into quitting the UK came as its contributions topped £750m.

Overseas banks with operations in London, such as Deutsche or JP Morgan, only pay the levy based on the scale of their UK businesses.

But HSBC, because it is based in the UK, is charged based on the total size of its balance sheet.