SCBFY - Standard Chartered PLC (SCBFF) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript
2024-05-05 04:23:02 ET
Standard Chartered PLC (SCBFF)
Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call
May 05, 2024, 03:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Diego De Giorgi - Group Chief Financial Officer
Bill Winters - Group Chief Executive
Conference Call Participants
Joseph Dickerson - Jefferies
Nick Lord - Morgan Stanley
Andrew Coombs - Citi
Robin Down - HSBC
Perlie Mong - KBW
Kunpeng Ma - China Securities
Aman Rakkar - Barclays
Gurpreet Sahi - Goldman Sachs
Presentation
Diego De Giorgi
Good morning and good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining our First Quarter Earnings Call. I'll take you briefly through the numbers, and then Bill, and I will be happy to take questions.
In my remarks, I will be comparing year-on-year on an underlying basis and speaking to constant currency unless stated otherwise. And as a reminder, the results of our segments and products are now presented to reflect the RNS we issued on the two April.
We had a strong start to 2024. First quarter income was up 20%. This growth rate was flattered by two notable items totaling $234 million. But even excluding this, income was up 14%.
Adjusted net interest income increased 5%, and the performance of our two engines of non-NII was strong with Wealth Solutions up 23% and markets up 17%. We saw good momentum in Banking with income up by a similar amount at 17%. With mid-single-digit expense growth and modest loan impairments, pretax profit was up 27%.
We remain highly liquid. Our CET1 ratio remains robust and the latest $1 billion share buyback is progressing well. We have also made good progress on our simplification agenda. We announced changes to our organizational structure, removed the regional matrix and are mobilizing the group around Fit For Growth.
Lastly, we are maintaining our 2024 guidance in-line with what we presented at our full year 2023 results, so all in all, a very good start to the year.
Turning now to look at our performance in more detail. Looking at the various components of income. NII was up 5%, benefiting for just one month from the roll-off of the remaining component of the short hedge at the end of February and the higher NIM.
Non-NII was up 37%, driven by strong performances in both Wealth Solutions and Markets and positive momentum in Banking. More on that later. Expenses were up 6%. Credit impairment remains low and predominantly relates to the WRB portfolio, with the charge in-line with recent quarters. The $60 million charge in other impairment was primarily related to write-off of software assets with no impact on capital....
Standard Chartered PLC (SCBFF) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript