Standard Chartered has published its Q3 2025 earnings, reporting a 5% rise YoY in operating income to $5.1bn on a constant currency basis, while its cross-border-led Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) also enjoyed growth.
Standard Chartered’s CIB division, which covers the lion’s share of its cross-border income and typically accounts for around 60% of the bank’s operating income, saw its operating income increase by 2% YoY to $3bn in Q3.
Under this, CIB’s Global Banking segment emerged as a key driver of this growth, enjoying a record quarter for the bank with a 23% YoY rise to $0.6bn. This increase was driven by growth in both of the units that make up Global Banking income: Lending & Financial Solutions rose 21% YoY, while Capital Markets & Advisory grew by 33% YoY in Q3.
However, CIB’s Transaction Services segment, which has traditionally accounted for the majority of Standard Chartered’s cross-border income, declined by 6% YoY in Q3 to $1.5bn. This drop can be attributed to its largest reporting segment, Payments & Liquidity, which includes all of Transaction Services’ cross-border income and fell 9% YoY in Q3 to $1bn. Standard Chartered noted that this drop was not caused by a reduction in activity, but by lower interest rates and margin compression. In fact, it reported that payment volumes and balances rose, but lower interest rates meant that this boost did not translate into improved income.
Flow income, the regular day-to-day income generated by the bank’s Global Markets business (such as foreign exchange), grew by 12% YoY, with the bank attributing this rise to strong client activity in emerging markets rates products, following its capture of various market opportunities. Group Chief Executive Bill Winters said that rises in Global Banking and its Global Markets business came as a result of Standard Chartered’s “sharper strategic focus” on servicing its clients’ cross-border needs.
Following the latest earnings call, in which the bank said that it was upgrading its 2025 operating income growth guidance from the bottom end of its 5-7% range to the top end, its share price rose to a 12-year high.
