Troubled bank Standard Chartered saw shares jump nearly 8 percent this morning, after results released today showed chief executive Bill Winters may be beginning to turn the business around.
Profits in the first three months of this year fell 59 percent on a year ago, with a pretax profit of $589 million – after reporting its first loss in 26 years in 2015.
CEO Bill Winters remained positive, however: “Although trading conditions in the first quarter remained challenging, we continue to make good progress on our strategic objectives.
“The management team is in place, we are taking action to improve recent income trends, managing costs tightly, progressing on key investments, making early progress on the exit of the liquidation portfolio, and maintaining strong levels of capital and liquidity.”
It warned that group performance would remain “subdued” for the full year as the company continues to implement its turnaround plan.