KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is currently the third key market for the Standard Chartered (StanChart) within Asean, but its group chief executive William T Winters has aspirations that the country would one day climb over the ranks to hit a loftier heights.
Winters sat down with NSTP Business on Friday for a quick chat over his two-day visit in Malaysia, which also included an audience with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, on why the Malaysian market plays an integral part in the British banking giant’s turnaround plan.
“We are optimistic in the overall economic picture of Malaysia and we are optimistic that this will be driven by exports to a degree and by capital investments,” he said.
“Those capital investments come from infrastructure projects as well as some substantial private market investments which will need financing and we are keen to participate in that to help push this forward.”
Winters then drew on the fact that StanChart is the world’s third largest trade bank and Malaysia, hasfor the most part a trade and export-heavy economy.
“We always have a strong anchor in trade finance and facilitating trade and in that way, Malaysia is very representative of our global group. It is one of the markets that we are very keen to grow,” he said.
“Couple with the country’s aspirations to become an advanced nation and its participation in two big trade-oriented initiatives namely China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), we believe that this market have a massive potential to grow even further,” he said.
Winters explained that China’s OBOR is “almost perfect” to the group’s global presence as it is now present in 45 out of the almost 70 OBOR countries.
“The OBOR initiative is almost perfect to our business strategy, structure as well as financing capabilities as we operate in 45 OBOR destinations countries. We are the only major international bank that operates in all 10 Asean countries and have the most extensive penetration in Africa and all then ‘sweet spots’ that OBOR is targeting,” he said.
“The CPTPP, meanwhile, represents 13 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP). It is a shame that America choose not to join but it is encouraging that that the remaining 11 countries choose to come together nonetheless.
“I would imagine that the Chinese would eventually like to plug into it as well, and perhaps America too one day. Nonetheless we are keen on the opportunities both OBOR and CPTPP represents, especially in the areas of trade financing and Malaysia presence in both initiatives makes it very attractive to us.”
Winters believes that on this backdrop as well as strong economic recovery domestically as well as globally, Malaysia will sooner or later contributes an even bigger portion of profit to the global group.
“We have no doubt that the Malaysian contribution to the global group can increase. We have a strong structure focusing on inward investments and also retail business, and Malaysia is growing substantially in both of those areas,” he said.
“We would look at more opportunities in making investments in those capacity, as well as to deliver advice and associated financing to Malaysian companies who are already abroad or looking to go abroad. We have absolute confidence that Malaysia will one day be a material contributor to our Asean presence and the global group.”
StanChart had faced a tough few years after being fined by United States regulators for sanctions breaches in 2012 as well as incurring heavy losses on risky loans to some large Asian clients that turned bad.
It posted a loss of US$1.52 billion in 2015 but swung into a pre-tax profit of US$1.1 billion in 2016, before rising to US$3 billion pre-tax profit last year, on the back of Winters’ ongoing restructuring plan.