Standard Chartered (STAN.L) CEO Bill Winters said on Monday that a major recession in the United States is unlikely, but that negative growth is possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I think it’s less about a massive decline in the United States – I think that’s very, very unlikely,” Winters said at a conference in Dubai, adding that the economy was “extremely strong.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“But it also has a high inflation problem and interest rates that are likely to remain high or even rise at some point\u2026 until the economy slows down. Does this portend a major downturn? I believe it is unlikely. Is it possible that we will experience negative growth? Yes.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said Standard Chartered’s credit committee is “not tighter at all” after the collapse of three regional U.S. banks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We were a net receiver of deposits during this period of global angst and we’ve got a super strong capital position and a very strong liquidity position,” he said, although the bank needs to keep an eye on how regulation changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Central banks need “to make sure that solvent banks – otherwise healthy banks – have access to liquidity,” Winters said adding that the U.S. Federal Reserve did not do a good job “in the eye in the storm”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The “reactive response in the U.S. was perfect,” effectively stemming the crisis, he said, adding the ideal would have been to provide liquidity to “challenged banks” ahead of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Now they may still end up taking the bank into the FDIC, writing off the equity, imposing losses on the AT1 securities … that may still have happened, but in a more orderly way that wouldn’t have undermined confidence in the broader system.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’m not concerned about the problems in the banking sector in the U.S. or Switzerland – which is where they’ve been so far – I’m not really concerned about it spilling over into global economic activity,” he said, adding he was “very optimistic about the Gulf.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First Abu Dhabi Bank, the UAE’s biggest lender, earlier this year had considered a bid to take over Standard Chartered, but later said it was no longer doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked if Standard Chartered’s biggest shareholder would stick by it if another Gulf lender “came after” it, Winters said: “We have all the capacity and resources we need to keep on growing and keep on living an independent life.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“If somebody wants to come in and talk to us about how they can make us better … yeah, be my guest, we can always have a conversation. We have that responsibility to our shareholders. But I’m very, very confident that we can deliver this package all by ourselves,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On interest rates, Winters said “I don’t know” when asked about the worst-case scenario, but added that his bank was focused on 5.25% “for now and for a while.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Standard Chartered (STAN.L) CEO Bill Winters said on Monday that a major recession in the United States is unlikely, but that negative growth is possible. “I think it’s less about a massive decline in the United States – I think that’s very, very unlikely,” Winters said at a conference in Dubai, adding that the economy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4508,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,166,45],"tags":[11,9,12],"class_list":{"0":"post-4507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"category-featured","9":"category-top-stories","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-world"},"yoast_head":"\n