When Simon Cooper joined Standard Chartered as chief executive for the bank’s corporate and institutional banking (CIB) business in 2016, he brought with him a wealth of experience from working in many of the bank’s key markets. He had previously managed the operations of HSBC’s Middle East and north Africa businesses, as well as that in South Korea, and was head of CIB in Singapore before running HSBC’s global commercial banking franchise for three years.
Standard Chartered, a competitor to HSBC in many respects, was then operating in more than 60 countries across the globe, with large franchises in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, positioning it as a true bank for emerging market clients. But the bank’s CIB business was also weighed down by heavy losses on loans to businesses in parts of Asia.
