Standard Chartered posts surprise $1.5bn loss on doubled impairment costs

Standard Chartered shares plunged on Tuesday (23 February) after the bank reported a surprise $1.5bn full year loss over 2015. The Asia-focused bank said that it sunk into a loss as unexpected expenses soared.

The bank wrote off $1.8bn (£1.27bn, €1.64bn) in restructuring spending. Impairment costs from a drop in value of loans doubled from 2014 to $4bn.

"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," Bill Winters, the CEO of the troubled bank, said in a release. "We expect the financial performance of the group to remain subdued during 2016."

Excluding the exceptional charges and expenses, StanChart's profit plummeted by 84% to $800m from a $4.2bn profit in 2014. Revenue dropped 15% to $15.4bn, missing analysts' forecasts of $15.9bn.

Chairman John Peace also signalled that the bank's problems go beyond the singular costs. Problems in Asian emerging markets are especially hurting StanChart's results.

"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," Peace said.

Chief executive Winters, who was announced as new boss on 25 February 2015, announced a restructure which was accelerated in the last months of 2015 and saw StanChart cut a quarter of its workforce.

The banking boss has focused on streamlining the company's business and cleaning up after his predecessor Peter Sands' effort to branch out into emerging markets left the bank with a large number of bad loans.