Standard Chartered PLC Innovation & Digitisation Day Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Raul Sinha - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Hi, it's Raul Sinha from JPMorgan. I just wanted to dig down a little bit into Africa and what's happened and maybe a question for Sunil. What happened to the profitability of the African retail business as you've added 700,000 new customers? And if you can touch upon how your cost base has changed as you've exited perhaps some of your branch network become more digital, what are you seeing there in terms of bottom line?

Question: Raul Sinha - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Can I just follow up and ask how the branch network has changed in Africa, if you can give us any numbers on that?

Question: Raul Sinha - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : It's Raul from JPMorgan. I guess a broader question about capital allocation. There's a lot on your plate right now. You've got a very strong capital ratio as a bank. You obviously got a very big investment budget now into the strategic initiatives versus where you were. But we can point to a number of different banks, which are your competitors, which have got bigger budgets. So the question really is how do you decide that $1 billion is the right number? And if you look at your plate, you've got your marginal dollar that could go into buying back your stock, buying the assets of a competitor that's exiting some of your markets or putting it into a new venture that somebody came up with an idea for which might be worth a lot. So what is the highest priority for you as a management team?