DHAKA: Shares in Standard Chartered plunged on Tuesday after the Asia-focused bank revealed a $1.5bn loss.

Chief executive Bill Winters, who took over from Peter Sands last year, described the performance over 2015 as ‘poor’, reports the BBC.

The bank will take a $4bn charge on writing down the value of its loans, driven by falling commodity prices and deterioration of Indian markets.

Shares in the bank tumbled by 9.6% to a record low of 399.3p in early trading.

Standard Chartered was forced to raise £3.3bn in a rights issue last year and announced a major cost-cutting drive which includes the loss of 15,000 jobs from its 86,000-strong workforce.

Sir John Peace, Standard Chartered’s outgoing chairman, said, ‘While our 2015 financial results were poor, they are set against a backdrop of continuing geo-political and economic headwinds and volatility across many of our markets as well as the effects of deliberate management actions’.

‘Our share price performance has also been disappointing, underperforming the wider equity market, which has seen broad declines driven largely by the same macroeconomic concerns.’

It is the first time since 1989 that Standard Chartered has reported a full-year loss.

BDST: 2057 HRS, FEB 23, 2016
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