Cote d’Ivoire

Continuing political and economic uncertainty characterised 2005 in Cote d’Ivoire. Despite that, Standard Chartered grew total revenues by 17% and reduced costs by 2%, doubling profits and restoring the banks’ RoE to a far healthier 29%, up from 5.4% the previous year.

“Political uncertainty and the ensuing civil unrest continued to dampen business confidence leading to declining credit opportunities within our target market segment,” says CEO Serge Philippe Bailly. “Our strategic focus, however, remained unchanged and we continued to target the multinationals and the expanding large domestic corporate sector.

“Our balance sheet remained relatively static as we focused on credit quality. Customer-specific, fee-generating, short-term structured product solutions have been the key business focus of the bank as credit appetite reduced in line with macroeconomic deterioration. In all of these, we maintained our position as the right partner to all our stakeholders, leading the way in the Cote d’Ivoire,” he says.

The bank improved operational efficiency, with its cost/income ratio falling from 81% to 68%.

The judges noted Standard Chartered’s various corporate social responsibility initiatives, which are increasingly important in a divided country that is still teetering on the edge of instability and conflict.