StanChart to cut private equity funds

LONDON • Standard Chartered Bank, reeling from losses in emerging markets, will reduce the amount of shareholder funds invested in private equity as chief executive officer Bill Winters pulls back from high-risk deals.

The bank will "reduce the group's balance sheet exposure" to the principal finance division that houses the Standard Chartered Private Equity (SCPE) business, Mr Shaun Gamble, a spokesman for the bank, said in an e-mailed statement.

Standard Chartered will manage the unit's third-party assets "to maximise returns", Mr Gamble said.

Mr Winters has been weighing options for the SCPE unit as he pushes through an overhaul to cut risks at Standard Chartered in the wake of a commodities crash that saddled the lender with losses last year.

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Philippine interest rate left at record low

MANILA • The Philippines left its benchmark interest rate at a record low to shield one of the world's fastest-growing economies from the projected market fallout following Mr Donald Trump's victory in the United States election. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas kept the overnight borrowing rate at 3 per cent, it said yesterday.

Central banks in the region face rising pressure to stabilise financial markets initially whipsawed by the US election results, with the peso trading near levels last seen during the global financial crisis.

President Rodrigo Duterte's violent crackdown on drugs and foreign policy shift away from the US are spooking investors even as economic growth is seen exceeding 6 per cent until 2018.

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