Standard Chartered has always been the least obvious of Britain’s biggest listed banks (Miles Costello writes). Although it has its headquarters in the UK, it has no British branch network and confines its business activities in the local economy to corporate and investment banking for large commercial customers.
The bank, which traces its roots to the 1850s, operates mainly in the emerging markets, including southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and its primary business lines are in personal, private and commercial banking.
The lack of a chequebook or local branch for its British investors to visit is no argument against holding the shares, of course, but it does give Standard Chartered a less familiar quality than HSBC, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds