Continuing political and economic uncertainty characterised 2005 in Cote d’Ivoire. Despite that, Standard Chartered grew total revenues by 17% and reduced costs by 2%, doubling profits and restoring the banks’ RoE to a far healthier 29%, up from 5.4% the previous year.
“Political uncertainty and the ensuing civil unrest continued to dampen business confidence leading to declining credit opportunities within our target market segment,” says CEO Serge Philippe Bailly. “Our strategic focus, however, remained unchanged and we continued to target the multinationals and the expanding large domestic corporate sector.
