Standard Chartered weighs Bahrain retail sale

Standard Chartered is exploring the sale of its wealth and retail banking business in Bahrain, extending a wider reshaping of its consumer operations as the London-headquartered lender concentrates capital on larger cross-border and affluent-client franchises.

The review applies only to the bank’s wealth and retail banking operations in the kingdom. Its corporate and investment banking business in Bahrain will continue unchanged, preserving the group’s institutional presence in a market it has long used as a regional financial hub.

The bank said any transaction would be subject to regulatory approvals and could take 18 to 24 months to complete. During that period, customer accounts, products and services are expected to operate on a business-as-usual basis while the lender works with staff, clients and regulators on a phased transition.

Bongiwe Gangeni, Standard Chartered’s head of wealth and retail banking for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said the group would keep investing where it has scale and a distinctive client proposition. She pointed to strong demand and long-term opportunities across the Middle East, particularly in banking services tied to regional wealth, international corridors and corporate flows.

The planned Bahrain move follows a series of exits or planned exits from smaller wealth and retail operations across Africa, including Tanzania, Gambia, Cameroon, Angola and Sierra Leone, with the lender also working through withdrawals from Uganda, Botswana and Zambia. The pattern reflects a sharper focus on markets where Standard Chartered can combine digital delivery, wealth management, international banking and corporate relationships at scale.

Bahrain remains one of the Gulf’s established financial centres, with banking sector assets of about $254.5 billion at the end of December 2025. The kingdom had 83 banks at the start of 2025, including 29 retail banks and 54 wholesale banks, while Islamic banking assets stood at about $67.1 billion. The sector’s depth has made the market attractive to regional and international lenders, but it has also intensified competition in consumer banking, where scale, technology spend and compliance costs have become decisive.

The bank’s decision comes as global lenders reassess consumer operations in smaller markets, particularly where returns are modest and capital can be redeployed into wealth, trade finance, transaction banking and advisory services. Bahrain’s retail banking market has already seen consolidation pressure, with HSBC agreeing last year to transfer its local retail banking operations to Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait. That transaction covered retail loans, deposits, credit cards and accounts held by tens of thousands of customers, while HSBC retained corporate and private banking activities in the kingdom.

For Standard Chartered, the Bahrain review fits into a broader profitability drive. The group has set higher return targets, aiming to lift return on tangible equity above 15 per cent by 2028 and to around 18 per cent by 2030. It has also outlined plans to reduce more than 7,000 corporate function roles by 2030, using automation and artificial intelligence to cut duplication and shift resources towards higher-return areas.

The wealth and retail banking division remains important to the group’s earnings, but management has made clear that growth will be concentrated in markets with larger affluent pools and stronger international banking demand. For 2025, the division’s profit before tax rose 14 per cent, while income grew 6 per cent, helped by a record performance in wealth solutions. Corporate and investment banking profit before tax rose 9 per cent, supported by global markets and global banking activity.

Bahrain’s corporate and investment banking operations are therefore expected to remain central to Standard Chartered’s local strategy. The franchise links multinational companies, financial institutions and large regional clients to the bank’s wider network across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. That network remains one of Standard Chartered’s main competitive advantages, particularly in trade, treasury, debt capital markets and cross-border financing.