Standard Chartered is undertaking a strategic redrawing of its retail banking strategy in India to focus more on establishing multi-product relationships with affluent clients with needs for cross-border financial activity, rather than the mass retail segment. According to The Hindu BusinessLine, Judy Hsu, CEO of Wealth and Retail Banking at Standard Chartered, stated that the bank wants to focus on its core strength, which is international, cross-border, and affluent clients. The bank has more than a million clients in India for its wealth and retail banking with more than 200,000 in the affluent category.
Standard Chartered has added 11 'affluent centres' within its existing branch network and plans to continue investing in redesigning these to offer advisory to the wealthy complementing the digital channels. As reported by The Hindu BusinessLine, as of December 2025, it has 20 such affluent centres and plans to add 15 more in 2026 within the existing branches. The bank is also looking at using GIFT City to offer more access to international products and support its wealth business, with the bank engaging with specialists since September to get regulatory clarity for wealth management operations from the financial centre.
Globally, the WRB segment has consistently onboarded over 60,000 affluent clients in each of the past 12 consecutive quarters, with the Affluent AUM stood at $447 billion as of December 2025, up 22 per cent year-on-year. According to The Hindu BusinessLine, Hsu noted that India's HNIs are quite savvy in their investment avenues and more digitally native compared to global peers. The bank has been engaging with specialists since September to get regulatory clarity and plan how they can structure the wealth management proposition from GIFT City, with more details expected by later this year.
Hsu stated that India's wealthy segment is growing and the bank wants to focus on clients who will eventually like a broader relationship that is more international and can grow with them. As reported by The Hindu BusinessLine, the bank is a top three wealth manager in Asia, and wants to be the top three in India. The bank's affluent clients include 'Global Indians' and 'Global Chinese' among key drivers of its WRB business, with efforts focusing on serving both business and personal wealth needs of Indian SMEs since Covid, including global M&As.
