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LOREM IPSUM STANDARD CHARTERED DOLOR SIT BANK AMET
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EXCELLENCE AND HARMONY IN SUPPORTING STAKEHOLDERS
tandard Chartered Bank cemented its foothold during the ‘new normal’, pushing out new initiatives and digital solutions for its clients, supporting its stakeholders and employees with multiple relief measures and recovery projects, and assisting the community with a growing number of corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes. “We continually refined and expanded our digital banking and retail banking services in the past years. The pandemic has brought unprecedented changes to client needs and expectations. We, therefore, accelerated our digital transformation to further enhance our clients’ propositions,” Mary Huen, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong, told Hong Kong Business. For their efforts, the bank was lauded Bank of the Year for 2021 at the Hong Kong Business Magazine’s Annual High Flyers Awards. This marks the fourth consecutive year the bank has snagged the title for its resilient, quality service and continuous efforts to contribute towards social progress. Pushing past the pandemic In its bid to become the go-to bank in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), Standard Chartered strengthened its foothold with positive growth and a very strong momentum amidst the pandemic. The bank was one of the first to sell investment products under the Cross-boundary wealth management connect (WMC) scheme, providing clients with more than 100 investment product options since its launch in October 2021. The bank has also launched the first GBA-themed QDII global fund product to help Chinese investors seize the emerging investment opportunities in the GBA. Its newly set up GBA centre, which completed the first phase of development in August 2021, boasts over 250 employees
60 HONG KONG BUSINESS ANNUAL 2022
- with plans to increase the number of people to 1,600 by 2023. It acts as a centre of excellence in deploying new technologies, transforming processes and expanding product capabilities in e-commerce, wealth management and financial markets. Meanwhile, it has collaborated with the Hong Kong Trade Development Council to set up the Standard Chartered GBA Business Confidence Index. According to Huen, it is the first forward-looking quarterly survey in the market that looks at the business sentiment and synergistic effects across GBA cities and industries. Moreover, the bank wants to focus on the affluent, but underserved, segment through the introduction of Priority Private Centre, which offers wealth-led, digital solutions to meet the needs of an increasing number of high net worth individuals in Hong Kong and China. Banking with a cause Despite all its digital transformative undertakings and pandemic safety measures, Standard Chartered Bank has not forgotten its commitment to reach net-zero carbon emissions from its operations by 2030, and from financing by 2050. To further help its clients’ transition to net-zero, the bank offers a wide range of solutions and product suites such as a green mortgage, which was launched in October 2021, targeting clients who purchase first-hand, secondhand or government subsidised housing with either a “platinum” or “gold” rating under the Hong Kong Green Building Council (HKGBC) BEAM Plus scheme. The product suite has also been strengthened: For instance, a brand new range of Standard Chartered Cathay Mastercard was introduced in
