Standard Chartered PLC at UBS European Conference Transcript

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

Question: Jason Napier - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : So I guess the sort of new news at Q3 was the sort of reformulation of the wealth plan, a bolstered investment in RMs there as well as perhaps the exit of some products and so on. Could you talk a little bit about what's changed since February and what capabilities you were going to be acquiring as a consequence of all that?

Question: Jason Napier - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Now the investment in RMs and wealth is not a new thing for Standard Chartered, and so the sort of embedded J curves and what you've already done should give you some insights into how this sort of plays out. So perhaps you could talk a little bit about what you've done, how that's performing, sort of how that matures over the rest of your financial plan.

Question: Jason Napier - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Right. And when we think about the sort of -- I guess there's a lot of focus on what the Hang Seng is doing in any given day and how that may or may not feed through to the wealth business. How volatile do you see the overall business being? How much of it is stock versus how much is

Question: Jason Napier - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Yes. Finishing off on the sort of area of inquiry, the things that you're exiting, selling, restructuring, and so on, do we need to care particularly about how large they are or what sort of exit cost that might involve? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 12, 2024 / 12:30PM, STAN.L - Standard Chartered PLC at UBS European Conference

Question: Jason Napier - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : So before we got up here, we were talking about sort of the groups of people that work that you spend a lot of time with, treasury being one of them. Interest rates have now started to decline. Market rates are all over the place. If you could talk just a little bit about the guidance that perhaps NII next year might be flat, returns to growth the next year. First of all, how have you changed the risk of the balance sheet since you've arrived to protect it against lower rates?

Question: Jason Napier - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : We've all read the disclosures around IRRBB in some of the banks. It's a work of art of how unseriously they want us to take the assumptions made. Is the real-life exposure higher or lower than IRRBB says it is?

Question: Jason Napier - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Right, really interesting answer. If you were talking to a generalist sort of longer-term investor and we were to look back and see that NII hasn't grown by the end of 2026, what would be the sort of the force rank of potential drivers of that? If that doesn't happen, what do you think will have been missing?

Question: Jason Napier - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Sticking with that for a second, one of the things that StanChart has been incredibly strong in since Bill took over in 2015 is balance sheet efficiency and a pivot towards higher ROA activities. Is it -- is the sale of loans and the originate to distribute activity significant enough that when I look at loan growth versus the footprint, that I'm getting the wrong impression as to how much of the business you're actually doing?

Question: Jason Napier - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Does that make sense?

Question: Jason Napier - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Sure. I think one of your larger competitors in the region talks about mid-single-digit growth being the sort of natural sort of footprint, and I think they would also be doing originate to distribute. I think that's really important for PE multiples. Do you think the delta between credit risk RWA and loan originations will continue to be a material thing? Are we at stability in terms of how those relationships work?

Question: Jason Napier - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Speaking of treadmills, the restructuring budget of $1.5 billion, that's a big number, and cost management is a treadmill that no one ever gets to get off. If you could talk a little bit about, to the extent that you can, bringing it to life, what shareholders get in exchange for that and the sort of arc of expenses into 2026? Because giving a dollar number that far forward is a real undertaking that I think is worthy of respect, but it's not easy to land. So a lot of money spent. What do we get from it? And when do we get it?

Question: Jason Napier - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Including in the transaction you announced with Wise a week ago.

Question: Jason Napier - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Yes. We turn to credit risk for a second. The first thing most of us do every morning now is look at what China has or hasn't announced the previous day from a stimulus standpoint and what the autos and luxury producers of the world are saying about their business in Mainland China. None of it particularly reads bullish at the moment. How much does that matter for your firm?

Question: Jason Napier - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Yes. The more currency crosses there are in the --

Question: Jason Napier - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : All right. Now I can't have one of Europe's best known FIG bankers on the stage and not ask you about M&A and sector dynamics there. The market seems to be applauding transactions now in a way that it wasn't sort of 12 months ago. Do you think dealmaking is back? Do you think there's a room for purchased value add rather than buyback-driven value add? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 12, 2024 / 12:30PM, STAN.L - Standard Chartered PLC at UBS European Conference

Question: Jason Napier - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : But it doesn't feel like StanChart is a buyer of businesses. If anything, it's about deploying the capital you're generating already.

Question: Jason Napier - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Look, I still think your implied cost of equity is way too high and that the stock is cheap. And I don't say that as a point of flattery, but it matters now potentially because of buybacks and so on. But running a bank where you're distributing a lot of capital and holding RWAs flat is difficult. There's less opportunity for operating leverage to give you growth. Is that price dependent? When you think about how much capital you give back, if the share price was 50% higher, do you think that would allow you to grow RWAs faster? Or is it about the opportunity you see in the market for your shares?

Question: Jason Napier - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Absolutely, will fix itself for sure. Diego, that brings us to time. I thank you very much for joining us today. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 12, 2024 / 12:30PM, STAN.L - Standard Chartered PLC at UBS European Conference