StanChart will continue to prioritise being a connector of capital and trade, emphasises Sunil.
WEARING two hats is no mean feat.
As the newly minted chief executive officer for Asean and South Asia for Standard Chartered (StanChart), and its co-head of corporate and investment banking (CIB), Sunil Kaushal bears great responsibilities.
Sunil has been with StanChart for over 26 years and has over 36 years of banking experience in key markets across North, South-East and South Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Prior to his current appointment, he held the role of regional chief executive officer for Africa and Middle East (AME) at the bank from October 2015.
Sunil led the acceleration of StanChart’s digital transformation in the AME region with the launch of digital banks across nine markets in Africa.
He also oversaw the digitisation of the bank’s wealth management offering.
Well-armed with this experience, Sunil is ready to play his role as the bank gears up for its next phase of growth, following its recent announcement to simplify its global management structure by combining businesses and geographies, which means that the bank can be less operationally complex and more agile in decision-making.
Sunil sees the change as an opportunity to adapt to the transformative changes taking place in the global banking industry, and re-assess and improve StanChart’s current standing.
“We did it not only to remove a layer, but also to simplify the organisation to ensure that decision making is efficient – far more efficient and quicker,” Sunil tells StarBiz, emphasising his belief on the importance of heeding feedback from stakeholders and improving from it.
Focusing on cross-border opportunities
A large portion of opportunities lies in cross-border business, which make up roughly two-thirds of CIB’s income and is growing much faster than the bank’s business-as-usual offerings while providing high returns.
In the first half of the year, the bank recorded US$3.6bil in global cross-border income, marking a 6% increase year-on-year.
Its footprint in Asia is among the deepest of any global bank, and the region is one of StanChart’s largest cross-border income generators, leveraging Hong Kong and Singapore’s positions as global hubs.
“We are seeing some great corridors develop. These were already significant, but are now becoming even more important,” Sunil notes, highlighting that the bank is keen to seize opportunities in intra-Asia, including Asean-South Asia, China-Asean, and Middle East-Asean.
Of particular interest is Sunil’s area of purview, Asean and South Asia, which have developed rapidly over the past two decades as major engines of global economic growth.
“We look at Asean as an amalgam of US$3.6 trillion in terms of gross domestic product with over 600 million in total population, which is a very compelling proposition for us,” he says, adding that the countries with the most potential include Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
“We see Malaysia doing extremely well in terms of supply chains shifting towards the country, and in terms of the move towards sustainability and net zero – electric vehicles, renewable energy, data centres and infrastructure investment – we see big opportunities in Malaysia,” he shares.
Data centres, in particular, are one of the fastest-growing asset or investment class that Sunil foresees will grow by double- digits in the coming years – especially with the advent of artificial intelligence, which are in its early stages.
“Malaysia and a couple of other Asean countries are very well positioned.
“Once you have that, then you attract a lot of ancillary businesses as well, as an important part of the infrastructure that the country can offer.
“In terms of facilitating the growth in these sectors, there’s a lot of depth in the role that we play, whether it is structuring capital or bringing in investors.
“There is a lot of investor interest as well in these sectors,” he explains.
Aiding in the transition to net-zero
StanChart is looking to grow its business in sustainable finance and project finance, which Sunil sees as good growth engines.
“Sustainable finance is an opportunity that we identified a few years back, and we invested in people who understand the business and are able to advise our customers on their journey to net zero.
“Opportunities to finance them for the transition naturally arise from these interactions.
“Project finance is also becoming increasingly important, as many of our markets go through a big surge in spending on infrastructure,” he says.
Sunil is confident that StanChart is well-positioned to tap into these opportunities as a super-connector bank, given its focus on linking capital and trade, as well as its capabilities and its ability to meld its global network with local expertise.
Sunil emphasises that StanChart will continue to prioritise being a connector of capital and trade, which utilises its most important asset: its network.
StanChart is the only international bank present in all 10 Asean markets, and has 170 years of experience in high barrier-to-entry markets across the world.
“I think we have a special place as an international bank with a unique footprint, as well as the product suite and people that we have, and the investments that we are making in technology.
“I think it is a unique proposition that we can provide.
“It comes back to the mantra that I’ve been talking about, which is that we are a super-connector bank.
“This value proposition becomes even more important when we are dealing with corporates outside of their home countries, especially when it comes to structured funding.
“It is about providing intellectual solutions on bespoke capital raising, accessing different pools of capital, ensuring the most efficient capital structures for institutions and organisations,” he shares.
At the end of the day, Sunil emphasises, it is a people business.
This means it is vital for banks like StanChart to develop capabilities in people and then products, which in turn become key differentiating factors.
Noting the issues around greenwashing, he says that the bank is very conscious of its responsibilities in accelerating the transition to net zero, evidenced in its Green and Sustainable Product Framework.
Another big challenge is capital – be it for sustainable finance, transition or adaptation finance.
“The transition to net zero is a big opportunity, but also a big challenge for us, in terms of the sheer quantity of financing required.
“We, as a bank, are playing our part, but it requires more participation from multilateral development finance institutions, more blended finance coming through to meet this vast financing gap,” he says, pointing out that regulatory scrutiny and environmental, social and governance aspects such as climate risk, will continue to develop moving forward.
