Standard Chartered Plc to lend 7.15 billion to Whistlejacket Capital

By Margarita Snegireva. Standard Chartered Plc said it may lend as much as $7.15 billion to its Whistlejacket Capital structured investment vehicle and take on the fund's assets.

Photo: Standard Chartered Plc to lend 7.15 billion to Whistlejacket Capital

Standard Chartered will support the SIV by buying its commercial paper, the London-based bank said in a statement today.

Banks led by HSBC Holdings Plc and Citigroup Inc. have stepped in to support their SIVs after the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market caused the prices of the funds' assets to decline. SIVs, which use short-term borrowing to invest in longer-dated assets, have reduced their holdings by more than $100 billion from a peak of $400 billion last year, according to Moody's Investors Service.

Standard Chartered Bank is a British bank headquartered in London with operations in more than fifty countries. It operates a network of over 1,600 branches (including subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures) and employs almost 60,000 people.

Despite its British base it has few customers in the United Kingdom and 90% of its profits come from the Asia Pacific Region, South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Because the bank's history is entwined with the development of the British Empire its operations lie predominantly in former British colonies, though over the past two decades it has expanded into countries that have historically had little British influence. It aims to provide a safe regulatory bridge between these developing economies.

It now focuses on consumer, corporate and institutional banking, and on the provision of treasury services – areas in which the Group had particular strength and expertise.

Standard Chartered is listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and is among the top 20 constituent members of the FTSE 100 Index.

On Tuesday 18th September 2007, Standard Chartered plc agreed to buy American Express Bank for around $860 million from American Express.