According to a press release issued here on Thursday, the Group produced diverse and resilient income growth across a number of products and geographies, driven by recent investment in new product capabilities and income streams.

Income growth is underpinned by a highly liquid, well funded and growing balance sheet, while we maintain strong cost control.

With rapidly developing trade and investment flows across our footprint, allied to a fast-growing middle class, Standard Chartered sees strong opportunities for further organic growth across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

The Group continues to focus on the strength of the balance sheet in order to support organic growth and support our customers, whilst ensuring we are well insulated from macro-economic and regulatory uncertainty.

We have grown customer deposits and lending, as we take market share across as wide range of products despite increasing competition in a number of our markets.

Customer deposits grew by 19 per cent or US$55 billion to US$343 billion, with the advances to deposits ratio remaining strong at 78.1 per cent.

The Group continues to be highly liquid, with US$150 billion of cash or near cash assets, while we have no sovereign debt exposure to Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece or Spain.

Wholesale Banking and Consumer Banking saw increased business activity across a number of products and services, as the Group captured market share from our competitors.

Peter Sands, Group Chief Executive, Standard Chartered said, “This is a very strong set of results - we have delivered record income and profit, grown our balance sheet, and raised our capital levels and dividend. Our growth is resilient and diverse. With a unique position at the heart of growing trade and investment flows between Asia, Africa and the Middle East, with their fast-expanding middle classes, we continue to see significant opportunities for profitable growth across our network.”

Copyright NNI (News Network International), 2010