Strong funding and liquidity profile. Established franchise in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, with strong international links. Improvement in credit costs and asset quality in the past few years. Presence in emerging markets increases complexity of operations and can lead to greater volatility in earnings. Low interest rates, social unrest in Hong Kong, and trade tensions could delay recovery in earnings. The stable outlook on Standard Chartered PLC (SC PLC) reflects our expectation that the Standard Chartered group will gradually improve its return on tangible equity (RoTE) without a substantial decline in its risk-adjusted capital (RAC) ratio over the next two years. We also expect the group to maintain satisfactory asset quality in line with other geographically diverse globally
