Standard Chartered

Is Standard Chartered safe?

On capital and liquidity, yes. Standard Chartered had a CET1 ratioCET1 ratioA bank's highest-quality capital (mainly shares and retained profits) as a share of its risk-weighted assets. Higher means more room to absorb losses.More in the glossary of 14.2% at 30 June 2026, 3.9 percentage points above its regulatory minimum, and a liquidity coverage ratioLiquidity coverage ratioA bank's cash and easy-to-sell assets compared with the money that could flow out in a 30-day crisis. It must be at least 100%.More in the glossary of 148.4%. Fitch rates the main bank AA-. We score it 75/100, five points below HSBC, the bank it is most often compared with, and one point below Barclays. The record that holds it back is conduct: two rounds of US sanctions penalties, in 2012 and 2019, and further UK fines since. The other thing to know is that "Standard Chartered" means different banks in different countries, each with its own deposit protectionDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary.

Which Standard Chartered bank holds your money

Standard Chartered PLC is a London-listed holding company. Its main bank, Standard Chartered Bank, is incorporated in England and authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority, but most of its customers bank with local subsidiaries or branches. Your protection depends on that local entity:

In several of its markets the local scheme is small or covers only some deposits. Many wealthy clients also hold foreign currency deposits, which some schemes, including Singapore's, do not cover. Standard Chartered is a G-SIBG-SIBA global systemically important bank: one of the large banks the Financial Stability Board lists each year because its failure could harm the world economy.More in the glossary in bucket 1, the lowest surcharge band, so its home regulator supervises it closely, but that is no substitute for knowing your local limit.

The list of countries where it serves ordinary savers is also getting shorter. On 23 June 2026 Standard Chartered said it was exploring a sale of its wealth and retail banking business in Bahrain, keeping only corporate banking there; it expects the move to take 18 to 24 months, with business as usual until then. That follows several earlier retail exits, mostly in Africa. When a retail business is sold, your accounts usually move to the buyer, and from then on they share that bank's local insurance limit with any account you already hold there.

Capital and liquidity

Lending only half of what it takes in deposits leaves a large pool of liquid assets. The catch is the source of the money. A big share of the $552.6 billion of customer accounts comes from corporate transaction banking and wealthy clients, balances that are far above any insurance limit and can move quickly. The bank's own stress tests, reported in its half-year report, show every country unit surviving its scenarios with a liquidity surplus.

The sanctions record

In December 2012 the Federal Reserve fined Standard Chartered $100 million and ordered it to fix its sanctions and anti-money launderingAnti-money launderingThe rules and checks that stop criminals from moving illegal money through banks, payment firms and crypto exchanges.More in the glossary compliance, as part of settlements with US authorities over payments for Iranian and other sanctioned parties routed through New York. The 2012 settlements did not end the problem. In April 2019 the Fed fined it another $164 million for inadequate sanctions controls and for failing to disclose sanctions risks, in actions with the Justice Department, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, New York prosecutors and New York's financial regulator. Penalties from all agencies, including £102.2 million from the UK's FCA for poor anti-money laundering controls, came to about $1.1 billion.

More recent cases are smaller. In December 2021 the Prudential Regulation Authority fined the bank £46.55 million after it misreported its US dollar liquidity position five times and was slow to tell the regulator. In Korea, Standard Chartered Bank Korea sold index-linked notes that lost money when the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell; it has compensated customers, and the Financial Services Commission proposed a penalty in June 2026. In Singapore it is defending a $2.7 billion lawsuit from liquidators of companies that misappropriated 1MDB funds, which it denies.

How to keep your money safe

1. Check the legal entity on your account terms, then look up that country's deposit insuranceDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary limit.
2. In Hong Kong, keep eligible deposits at Standard Chartered within HK$800,000 per person if you want them fully protected; Mox counts separately.
3. Treat structured deposits, foreign currency deposits where the local scheme excludes them, and wealth products as uninsured.
4. Use the app's biometric login and transaction alerts, and never give one-time passwords to callers claiming to be the bank.

How we scored it

Capital (85) and liquidity (86) are Standard Chartered's strongest factors: a buffer of almost four points over its minimum, an AA- Fitch rating and a low loan-to-deposit ratio. Conduct (45) is the weakest, reflecting repeated sanctions and anti-money launderingAnti-money launderingThe rules and checks that stop criminals from moving illegal money through banks, payment firms and crypto exchanges.More in the glossary penalties. Deposit protectionDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary (78) is held back because cover depends on the country and is thin in some markets.