Standard Chartered goes on hiring spree

4th Aug 2011 08:04

Standard Chartered, the UK's second biggest bank by market value, is to take on an extra 2,000 staff by the end of the year, according to its head of Asian operations.The news comes in stark contrast to rivals HSBC and Barclays who have both announced large job cuts this week.Jaspal Singh Bindra, chief executive for Asian operations at Standard, said the bank would also open 10 more outlets in China by the end of 2011, taking its total to 81."We've been growing the business," he said. "We've been hiring people all along, and we've been growing our profits as well." He told Bloomberg that most of the new staff would be employed in Asia, echoing HSBC, which, after announcing 30,000 job cuts, said it could take on up 15,000 new staff in emerging economies.This week Asia-focused Standard Chartered announced record first half profits for the ninth successive year.Half-year profits before tax of $3.64bn were up from $3.12bn the year before. Normalised earnings per share were up 4.1% at 105.2 cents from 101.1 cents the year before, and marginally ahead of the 104.9 cents predicted by broker Charles Stanley. Profit attributable to ordinary shareholders was $2.52bn, up 20% from $2.10bn in the first half of 2010.