The bank operates more than 1,700 branches, offices and outlets in 70 markets but mainly targets the fast-growing markets of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, where it derives more than 90% of its income and profits.
It has no branches in the UK but its headquarters are in London and it employs 2,100 staff in this country.
London is a key hub for its wholesale banking business and carries out significant private banking and international banking operations.
It sponsors Liverpool FC.
Standard Chartered bank was formed in 1969 through the merger of two separate banks – the Standard bank of British South Africa and the Chartered bank of India, Australia and China. These banks had capitalised on the expansion of trade between Europe, Asia and Africa.
Its history dates back more than 150 years.
Chartered bank was founded by James Wilson following the grant of a royal charter by Queen Victoria in 1853. After opening branches in Mumbai, Kolkata, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore over the next decade, it traded in cotton from Mumbai, indigo and tea from Kolkata, rice from Burma, sugar from Java, tobacco from Sumatra, hemp from Manila and silk from Yokohama.
Standard bank was founded in the Cape province of South Africa in 1862 by John Paterson, and started business in Port Elizabeth in the following year. It helped finance the development of the Kimberley diamond fields from 1867 and extended its network further north to the new town of Johannesburg when gold was discovered there in 1885. The bank had 600 offices across southern, central and eastern Africa by 1953.
Standard Chartered today employs 87,000 staff across the world, representing 130 nationalities.
It reported its ninth year in a row of record profit and income growth in 2011. Pre-tax profits rose 11% to $6.8bn (£4.3 billion), while operating income rose 10% to $17.6bn.
The revelations come days after the group reassured investors that it was not involved in the Libor rate-rigging scandal.
Its chief executive, Peter Sands, said: “It may seem boring in contrast to what is going on elsewhere, but we see some virtue in being boring.”
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