About Us

Standard Chartered PLC, listed on both London and Hong Kong stock exchanges, ranks among the top 25 companies in the FTSE-100 by market capitalisation. The London-headquartered Group has operated for over 150 years in some of the world's most dynamic markets, leading the way in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Its income and profits have more than doubled over the last five years primarily as a result of organic growth. Standard Chartered has a network of over 1,600 branches and outlets and 5,500 ATMs in more than 70 countries and territories across the globe, making us one of the world’s most international banks. .

Standard Chartered aspires to be the best international bank for its customers across its markets. The Group earns around 90 per cent of its income and profits in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, from its Wholesale and Consumer Banking businesses. The Group has over 1600 branches and outlets located in over 70 countries. The extraordinary growth of its markets and businesses creates exciting and challenging international career opportunities.

Leading by example to be the right partner for its stakeholders, the Group is committed to building a sustainable business over the long term and is trusted worldwide for upholding high standards of corporate governance, social responsibility, environmental protection and employee diversity. It employs around 70,000 people, nearly half of whom are women. The Group's employees are of 125 nationalities, of which about 70 are represented in the senior management.

Diversity and inclusion

As a global bank, the variety of markets in which we do business makes us inherently diverse. Our success is made possible by our people and the broad range of talents that they bring to the Bank.

Gender diversity
Women make up 46 per cent of our total workforce and the number of women in senior management roles has increased. To increase female representation amongst senior management we focus on creating a pipeline of high-potential female employees at middle management. In 2008, we developed a mentoring programme for our middle management talent, with a specific focus on women. We will measure the impact and success of this programme throughout 2009.

There is strong female representation in our global talent pools. In 2008, women made up 51 per cent of the International Graduate intake, 42 per cent of our junior high-potential talent pool and 32 per cent of our middle management high-potential talent pool.

The Bank actively supports International Women’s Day. Across our markets, we organise a variety of activities to recognise the achievements of women and highlight role models for women in the Group.

Balancing work and personal commitments
In 2008, we launched initiatives to support employees with family responsibilities, and new maternity and paternity leave policies were rolled out in Bangladesh, Lebanon, US and Australia in 2008.

Further to our initial pilot in 2007, a flexible working policy was extended to nine countries in 2008. We are also piloting home working arrangements which benefit employees, the business and the environment. The initiative has been well-received and in the US, UK, Singapore, Malaysia and India, over 800 people currently have working from home arrangements.

In the UK, a parents & carers network has also been established, which aims to provide peer to peer support for UK-based employees. The network provides a forum for people to come together and share their knowledge and experiences with others. It organises regular events and workshops to encourage staff to see the skills developed in the course of becoming a parent or carer as assets and to enable them to transfer those skills to the workplace.

The UK Parents and Carers Network works closely with the Europe management Committee and the regional HR team to ensure that meet our commitment to Diversity and Inclusion - to get the best out of the broadest spectrum of people in order to sustain strong business performance and competitive advantage. We believe that managing diversity through inclusion will enable us to understand and serve all our stakeholders better and make us the preferred employer in our markets. We will strive to be recognised as a leader in gender diversity by helping women realise their full potential through personal development and supportive workplace practices implemented in an engaging and inclusive workplace. We will develop and implement approaches to achieve our Diversity and Inclusion aspiration, track and report progress over time, whilst observing local legislation in all our markets.