Standard Chartered PLC

Standard Chartered Bank announced its success as Joint Sustainability Structuring Bank, Joint Bookrunner and Joint Lead Arranger for the issuance and offering of a 15-year 8-month sustainability-linked bond, or SLB, worth 25 billion baht under its updated sustainable financing framework. The offering drew strong demand from investors, with total orders exceeding 36.3 billion baht, or 1.45 times the offering size. The SLB425A bond is issued in baht in the domestic market and is linked to two sustainability indicators: reducing Thailand's net greenhouse gas emissions to 152 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2035, or a 47 percent reduction from 2019 levels, and increasing protected land and inland freshwater areas, including biodiversity conservation areas outside protected zones, to cover no less than 30 percent of Thailand's total land area by 2030. This marks the first time a public-sector debt issuer in Asia has included a biodiversity target in its financing framework. The transaction ranks as the second-largest public-sector SLB in Asia, after Thailand's first public-sector SLB, and the fourth-largest in the world. Jindarat Viriyataveekul, Director-General of the Public Debt Management Office, said the bond will bring measurable sustainability goals into public debt management and serve as a new reference rate for Thai government bonds. Charles Corbett, Head of Sovereign and Public Sector Clients at Standard Chartered Bank, said the issuance helps strengthen the integration of sustainability dimensions into the country's core financing strategy. Rahul Sheth, Managing Director of Debt Markets and Head of Sustainable Bonds at Standard Chartered Bank, said the transaction aligns with Thailand's latest NDC 3.0 targets and supports the path toward net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The issuance builds on Thailand's first SLB, which was the first public-sector SLB in Asia and the third in the world. That pioneering transaction, supported by Standard Chartered, raised more than 230 billion baht in local currency through multiple additional auctions.

In the top crypto news summary for September 4, 2026, Bitcoin climbed back above the $81,000 level. Meanwhile, Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing to issue regulations for stablecoins. On the same day, Standard Chartered launched trading services for Bitcoin and Ethereum, Coinbase expanded into equity perpetuals, and Nvidia acquired Hugging Face.

Standard Chartered has launched spot trading in Bitcoin and Ether for institutional clients in the United Arab Emirates, becoming the first global systemically important bank to offer such a service in the country. The bank announced on Thursday that eligible institutional clients can trade these cryptocurrencies through its electronic trading channels, integrated into existing platforms, allowing them to use the same foreign exchange interfaces they already have. This spot trading capability, which involves buying and selling the underlying asset for delivery, expands the bank's digital asset business in the UAE, following its launch of digital asset custody in September 2024. Clients can settle trades with a custodian of their choice, including Standard Chartered's own platform. The bank first offered institutional spot trading in Bitcoin and Ether through its UK branch in July 2025, also as a first among G-SIBs. Bitcoin is currently trading at $79,775, up 3.47% over the past day, while Ether is at $2,455, up 2.52%.

The Public Debt Management Office (PDMO) under the Ministry of Finance is preparing to issue the second series of Sustainability-Linked Bonds (SLB), code SLB425A, with a maturity of 15 years and an offering size of approximately 15,000–30,000 million baht. The PDMO will conduct roadshows for foreign investors in Hong Kong and Singapore from September 1–4, ahead of a bookbuilding on September 10 and the bond issuance on September 17, 2026. This bond series features two sustainability indicators: reducing net greenhouse gas emissions to no more than 152 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2035, and increasing protected areas and OECMs to at least 30% of terrestrial and inland water areas by 2030. The interest rate will adjust up or down by a maximum of 5.0 basis points depending on the achievement of these targets. The underwriters are Bangkok Bank, Krungsri (Bank of Ayudhya), Siam Commercial Bank, and Standard Chartered (Thai).

XRP's early cross-border payments advantage is eroding as major banks launch tokenized deposit networks that reduce pre-funding needs. JPMorgan's Kinexys network now offers eight-currency blockchain deposit accounts with on-chain FX, while Citi's 24/7 USD Clearing and Token Services reach over 250 banks across more than 40 markets. SWIFT has demonstrated interoperability between HSBC and Standard Chartered deposit tokens, with 17 banks preparing live transactions. Ripple itself is diversifying settlement options to include RLUSD, USDC, USDT, and fiat, reducing reliance on XRP as a bridge asset.

Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong announced on 24 August that it has become an authorised distributor of the Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin HKDAP. This marks the first time a bank has participated as an initial distributor, and the bank will proceed to offer it to eligible institutional clients and partners. HKDAP is the first regulated Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin in Hong Kong, issued by Anchorpoint Financial, and can be used for 24/7 transfers and settlements, with transaction processing that can be programmed. Initial use cases include subscription and settlement for tokenised money market funds, intercompany fund transfers within a group, and cross-border payments. The bank plans to begin tokenised money market fund subscription and settlement with major asset managers overseas and in Hong Kong in the fourth quarter of 2026. Anchorpoint Financial is a joint venture established in February 2025 by Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong, HKT, and Animoca Brands, with Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong as the lead shareholder. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority granted the company a stablecoin issuer licence, FRS01, in April 2026.

Bitcoin posted its largest weekly dollar gain in history, rising approximately 21% last week, while Ether gained 30%. Bitcoin ETFs attracted $1.92 billion in the week, the biggest weekly inflow in 10 months, and Ether ETFs added another 697 billion dollars. Strategy sold 18.26 million MSTR shares to raise $2.01 billion but did not buy any Bitcoin, instead earmarking $1.6 billion as a cash pool for treasury operations and buybacks. Standard Chartered became the first bank to distribute a Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, and crypto card spending topped $1 billion as stablecoins moved into everyday purchases.

HSBC Holdings and Standard Chartered completed the first live cross-border interbank transaction using tokenised deposits over Swift's blockchain ledger. The pilot payment used Swift's distributed ledger infrastructure to move tokenised deposits between the two banks in different jurisdictions. The live transaction highlights HSBC's efforts to apply blockchain technology within regulated banking for cross-border payments. HSBC Holdings, a global bank with a reported market value of about £257.7b, provides a wide range of banking and financial services across multiple regions. Its role in this pilot reflects how large, established institutions are testing tokenised deposits within existing cross-border payment infrastructure.

Standard Chartered is increasing the weighting of hedge fund strategies in its wealth management client portfolios to help diversify risk and reduce the impact of market volatility. Samir Subberwal, global head of Wealth Solutions at Standard Chartered, told Reuters that hedge funds provide some downside protection and generate more stable returns during volatile markets. The bank is focusing on equity market neutral strategies and multi-strategy funds of hedge funds, which aim to deliver positive absolute returns and have low correlation to overall markets. Data from Goldman Sachs shows that global hedge funds returned an average of 7% in the first half of 2026, above the 10-year average of about 4.1%. Meanwhile, HFR reported that assets under management in the hedge fund industry rose by 409 billion dollars to 5.6 trillion dollars in the latest quarter, the largest increase on record. The move comes as Standard Chartered's wealth management business is growing strongly, with wealth revenue up 38% in the first half.

Ant International, a Singapore-based affiliate of Chinese fintech company Ant Group, announced on the 20th that it has released an updated version of its artificial intelligence model, the Falcon Time-Series Transformer Model 2.0, and has partnered with six major banks including Citi, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered, and Barclays. The model is specialised for financial scenarios and is said to have advantages over general-purpose large models. With accurate forecasting, it can reduce currency hedging and allocation costs by more than 60 percent.

Circle has unveiled Arc, a new blockchain purpose-built for stablecoin transactions, cross-border settlements, and tokenized real-world assets, with major financial institutions including BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard, Standard Chartered, MoneyGram, and Intercontinental Exchange already lined up as backers. Arc, which launches in September, uses Circle's USDC stablecoin to fund transfers, avoiding the volatility of native tokens like Ether and Solana, and can move money in under half a second for a fraction of a cent. The blockchain is compatible with Ethereum's decentralized finance apps and is positioned to help Circle evolve from a stablecoin issuer into an infrastructure provider. Circle's stock has fallen nearly 60% over the past year, but the company expects Arc to draw investors back and counter competitive threats such as the Open USD stablecoin backed by over 140 companies.

Standard Chartered's joint venture Anchorpoint Financial has begun the first phase of the rollout of its Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin, offering limited access to institutional distributors and professional investors. The stablecoin, called HKD At Par (HKDAP), will allow initial distributors and users to integrate it into commercial applications, with authorised distributors offering conversion between HKDAP and fiat currency for institutions, corporate users and professional investors. Anchorpoint, a joint venture with Animoca Brands and Hong Kong Telecommunications, is targeting broader retail adoption as early as the end of 2026, depending on market conditions, and is adopting a business-to-business-to-consumer model to expand participation. The launch follows the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's approval in early April for HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial to issue fiat-backed stablecoins.

Standard Chartered has raised its forecast for Thailand's GDP growth in 2026 to 1.6%, up from 1.4%. Senior economist Tim Leelahaphan said the upgrade reflects short-term support from the government's cost-of-living relief measures, and there could be further upside if second-quarter GDP figures come in strong, with the forecast potentially rising to around 2% if the fiscal 2027 budget is passed on time and support measures continue. The bank maintains its policy rate forecast at 1.00% for both this year and next, viewing this year's inflation of 1.9% as within the target range and not warranting a rate hike, despite easing global monetary policy pressures. It also noted that first-half exports grew about 18%, but were concentrated in electronics goods that require high raw material imports, resulting in a trade deficit of around 5 to 6 billion US dollars. Meanwhile, foreign investment inflows have started to pick up, and tourist arrivals have yet to return to pre-COVID-19 levels, weighing on the current account balance.

Circle will open the public mainnet of its Arc blockchain on September 16 with a founding validator cohort drawn almost entirely from traditional finance. BlackRock, DTCC, Galaxy, Global Payments, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation, and Visa will secure the network alongside Circle. BlackRock is expected to deploy its tokenized money market fund BUIDL on Arc, while DTCC will enable tokenization of assets it custodies in the second half of 2027. The testnet has processed more than half a billion transactions across nearly 3 million wallets, and day-one DeFi protocols include Aave, Morpho, and Uniswap. Circle also reported second-quarter total revenue and reserve income of $701 million, up 7% year-over-year, with USDC in circulation closing at $73.3 billion.

Muangthai Capital Public Company Limited, or MTC, has won the Best Social Bond – Thailand award at The Asset Triple A Awards for Sustainable Finance 2026. This reflects the success of its Singapore dollar-denominated social bond issuance, totaling 129 million Singapore dollars, marking a significant step in raising funds in international capital markets. Standard Chartered Bank acted as the sole coordinator and bookrunner. The bonds are senior unsecured notes with tenors of three and five years, issued under Reg S format and guaranteed by the Credit Guarantee and Investment Facility, or CGIF, with support from the Asian Development Bank. This is MTC's first Singapore dollar bond issuance, the first SGD-denominated bond guaranteed by CGIF for a Thai listed company, and the first social bond offered to the public in Singapore by a non-bank financial institution from Thailand. The company will use the proceeds to support lending under its Social Bond Framework, creating access to financial services for individuals and micro-entrepreneurs, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The FTSE 100 set a new intraday record of 10,951.06 before closing up 0.3% at 10,908.41 on Wednesday, buoyed by strong earnings and rising oil prices. BP and Shell gained 3.4% and 2.8% respectively as Brent crude surged back above 90 dollars a barrel after President Trump vowed retaliation for an Iranian attack on US bases in Jordan. Among blue-chip stocks, Weir Group jumped 8.7% on robust first-half results, Sage Group rose 8.8% after an upbeat trading update, and Reckitt Benckiser added 4.3% as it announced a share buyback and reported second-quarter like-for-like sales growth of 4.7%, beating consensus. Standard Chartered climbed 2.9% after a record first-half performance and a 1 billion dollar buyback, while on the FTSE 250, Greggs soared 18% on half-year profit and sales that exceeded expectations. Attention now turns to the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision, with markets pricing a 34% chance of a hike amid limited forward guidance from new Fed chair Kevin Warsh.

Standard Chartered is launching a fresh one billion US dollar share buyback after posting record pre-tax profits of 4.8 billion US dollars for the first half of 2026, up 9% year-on-year. The buyback, worth £750 million, starts imminently and follows a 1.5 billion dollar buyback completed in the first half. Chief executive Bill Winters said the returns reflect confidence in the business, with wealth arm income up 38% and global banking income up 19%. The bank had previously announced plans to cut about 7,800 back-office roles over four years while increasing use of artificial intelligence.

European equities advanced on Wednesday as investors awaited the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy decision. The pan-European Stoxx 600 moved 0.31% higher to €648.90, with London's UKX up 0.55%, Germany's DAX up 0.27%, and France's CAC up 0.49%. The Fed is widely expected to leave the federal funds rate unchanged at 3.50%–3.75% for a fifth consecutive meeting in July. On the corporate front, UBS Group and Standard Chartered announced new buybacks after strong earnings, while investors tracked results from L'Oréal, Hermès, Airbus, Aon, and Deutsche Bank. In the bond market, the yield on the US 10-year Treasury was up 1 basis point to 4.61%, the UK's 10-year yield was up 2 basis points to 4.97%, and Germany's 10-year yield was up 1 basis point to 3.12%.

Standard Chartered reported a higher second-quarter profit and upgraded its fiscal 2026 income guidance, while also announcing a $1 billion share buyback. Profit before tax grew 2 percent to $2.33 billion, and earnings per share rose 7 percent to 75.3 cents. Operating income increased 3 percent to $5.70 billion, driven by a 6 percent rise in adjusted net interest income to $2.87 billion. The board declared an interim dividend of 20.4 cents per share, up 66 percent from last year, and the new buyback programme will commence imminently. For fiscal 2026, the company now expects operating income growth around the middle of the 5 to 7 percent range at constant currency, excluding material notable items. Shares in Hong Kong gained around 5.7 percent to trade at HK$235.400.

Digital Asset, the developer of the Canton blockchain network, has raised an additional $10 million, bringing in South Korea's Shinhan Financial Group and Standard Chartered's SC Ventures as strategic investors. This expands the total funding round announced in June from $355 million to $365 million, with the equity valuation unchanged at $2 billion. The initial round was led by a16z crypto, with participation from HSBC, BNP Paribas, and SBI Group. The Canton network is the only public layer-1 blockchain with privacy features for institutional investors, and this investment is expected to drive greater institutional adoption in Asia.

Broadcom's VMware Cloud Foundation is becoming a major growth engine for its Infrastructure Software business, with revenues increasing 9% year over year to $7.2 billion in the second quarter of fiscal 2026 and projected to accelerate to approximately $8.9 billion in the third quarter. Demand for VCF 9.1 remains strong as enterprises deploy on-premises private clouds for AI inference, Kubernetes, and traditional workloads on a unified platform. Standard Chartered recently selected VCF to modernize its global IT infrastructure across 54 markets, with nearly 70% of its infrastructure already migrated, reinforcing enterprise adoption in highly regulated industries. Broadcom expects AI semiconductor revenues to reach approximately $56 billion in fiscal 2026 and exceed $100 billion in fiscal 2027, driven by long-term agreements with Google, Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic. The company faces competition from NVIDIA in AI computing and Cisco in AI networking, while its stock has appreciated 11% year to date and carries a Zacks Rank of 2.

Standard Chartered has renewed its call for Bitcoin to reach $100,000 by the end of 2026. Geoff Kendrick, the bank's global head of digital assets research, reaffirmed the price target in a note to investors, while dismissing recent Bitcoin sales by Strategy as mostly noise rather than a signal. Bitcoin was trading around $64,000 as of July 17, requiring a 56% gain to meet the target. The article notes that Strategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin with over 840,000 BTC, has seen its stock fall 41% since first selling Bitcoin on May 26, while Bitcoin itself is down 17% over the same period. The piece argues that a multi-year bear market is more likely, with Bitcoin potentially treading water through 2027, and cautions that patience is essential for investors in the asset class.

Broadcom and Standard Chartered have entered a long-term strategic commitment to accelerate the bank's global infrastructure modernization. The partnership will establish a secure, resilient private cloud foundation using VMware Cloud Foundation to support critical banking services across 54 global markets. Standard Chartered has realigned its infrastructure delivery to a fully integrated software-defined private cloud environment. Krish Prasad, senior vice president and general manager of VMware Cloud Foundation Division at Broadcom, stated that global financial institutions require infrastructure combining resilience, security, and operational simplicity at scale.

Masdar has reached financial close on a $5.1 billion financing package for the world’s first gigascale round-the-clock renewable energy project in Abu Dhabi. The total capital investment for the project is $6.1 billion, with Masdar funding $1 billion of the equity. The financing is backed by a consortium of 13 international and local banks, including BNP Paribas, Societe Generale, and Standard Chartered Bank. The project will comprise a 5.2-gigawatt solar photovoltaic plant and a 19 gigawatt-hour battery energy storage system, and is being developed with Emirates Water and Electricity Company. Masdar broke ground in October 2025 and expects the project to be operational in 2027.

Standard Chartered has announced a global collaboration with BlackRock’s Aladdin Wealth technology platform to enhance its wealth advisory and risk management capabilities. The integration will be carried out through the bank’s myWealth Advisor platform, used by relationship managers and investment advisers, providing them with portfolio analytics and investment insights for more data-led, personalised advice. The rollout will initially cover Singapore and Hong Kong across the bank’s Priority, Priority Private and Private Banking client segments, with plans to expand to other markets over time. The platform offers portfolio risk and return analysis across equities, fixed income, funds, ETFs and alternatives, along with stress testing and scenario analysis tools to help advisers demonstrate how portfolios may perform under different market conditions.

XRP still trades around $1 despite more than a decade of hype, and its three-year outlook splits into two scenarios. In a bull case, institutional adoption accelerates and Standard Chartered sees XRP reaching $12.50 by 2028, driven by payment use and real-world asset tokenization. In a bear case, stablecoins like Ripple USD erode XRP's role as a bridge currency, keeping the price near $1. The author caps the realistic upside at $3, which would give XRP a market cap similar to Ethereum, noting the token is down 70% from its 2025 highs.

SWIFT has announced the initial availability of a blockchain-based shared ledger. Seventeen major global banks are preparing to trial live transactions for cross-border payments using tokenized deposits. The platform will enable regulated banks to move tokenized deposits 24/7, with final settlement occurring through existing payment networks. Participating institutions include Citi, HSBC, BNP Paribas, Standard Chartered, UBS, BNY, Wells Fargo, and DBS. According to SWIFT, 75% of payments on the SWIFT network now reach the recipient bank within 10 minutes, with many arriving in seconds.

European stocks closed mostly higher on Thursday, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 climbing 0.78%, as investors looked past U.S.-Iran tensions and focused on corporate earnings and economic data. Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 rose 0.89% and 0.9% respectively, while the UK's FTSE 100 slipped 0.16%. Mining and financial shares led gains, with Anglo American, Antofagasta, and Glencore up 4.1% to 6%, and Standard Chartered climbing 3.4%. AstraZeneca fell more than 6% after its nerve disease drug Wainua failed a late-stage trial. Germany's trade surplus widened to €19.1 billion in May, the largest since February, as exports unexpectedly rose 0.9% and imports dropped 2.5%.