Standard Chartered eschews MNCs to woo SMEs

Standard Chartered’s Karen Fawcett says the bank will say no to new business from multinationals as it focuses on existing MNCs and on winning SME clients.
Karen Fawcett, group head of transaction banking, Standard Chartered
Karen Fawcett, group head of transaction banking, Standard Chartered

It’s not every day you hear the head of a banking division claim that they would turn down new business from juicy multinational clients, but this is precisely the direction being taken by Standard Chartered. The bank is committed to servicing its existing MNC clients, but when it comes to winning new business, the target market is clearly the middle and small to mid-size enterprise segments, said Karen Fawcett, Standard Chartered’s senior managing director and group head of transaction banking, wholesale banking division.

This might be seen as a bold approach for the bank, but the rationale behind the strategy is simple, said Fawcett. Standard Chartered would rather leverage its balance sheet for existing...

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