Standard Chartered has out-paced HSBC. In 2009, total return on its shares soared 79 percent as of November 3, 2009, the second-best performance of Britain’s top five banks after Barclays Plc, and four times the gain of its archrival, London based HSBC Holdings Plc. The bank was effected by the global financial debacle; its stock fell 46 percent in 2008. However, Standard Charter’s profits were barely affected, rising 20 percent to a record $3.4 billion compared with 2007, on revenue that was up 26 percent to $14 billion.

Standard Chartered is what HSBC wants to be. Though headquartered on Basinghall Avenue in the City of London, Standard Chartered is very much an Asian bank, with 71 percent of its 2008 revenue originating in the region, while another 12 percent came from the Middle East and Pakistan and 7 percent from Africa.

HSBC’s purchase of Household International put HSBC on a different path that soon turned in to disaster.

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