<div>The Indian operations of Standard Chartered Bank (StanChart) will see "rationalisation" as part of the bank's global lay-off of 15,000 staffers. The move is part of the bank's chief executive officer Bill Winters' larger plan to restore profitability hit by emerging market's economic woes.</div><div> </div><div>While the exact staffing to be cut in India is not known as this point in time -- it employs close to 20,000 in India -- the bank may redeploy key local human resources across its global franchise. A key reason for this is on a standalone basis, the largest foreign lender in India in terms of branch network (100) saw its net profit rise 93 per cent in 2014-15 to Rs 3,051.4 crore (Rs 1,584 crore). For the times we live in, that's not bad for a foreign bank in India. The result is seen as a vote of confidence in the ability of the bank's top brass in India; and to that extent pink slips may not be issued left, right and centre.</div><div> </div><div>Local incorporation of the bank is also on the cards - as on date no foreign bank in India is locally incorporated; they are branch operations of their parents. Local incorporation will offer them "near national treatment" on a par with Indian private banks even as it means that they will have meet regulatory requirements on priority sector lending like local banks.</div><div> </div><div>The churn at the bank started from the time former global CEO Peter Sands and Asia chief Jaspal Bindra left the scene. Sand's deputy CEO Mike Rees saw his wings being clipped; he had joined the bank in 1990 and had regional chiefs reporting into him was the best paid board member last year and has been awarded about $72 million in the six years after the financial crisis. Another biggie who quit was V Shankar -- head of Middle East & Africa -- to set up a private equity fund which will invest in the region.</div><div><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/gameplan-lrg.jpg" style="width: 650px; height: 209px;"></div><div> </div><div>Winters rationalised the bank's eight regions into four new regional businesses: ASEAN & south-Asia, (including India), led by Ajay Kanwal; Africa & middle-East (Sunil Kaushal, India CEO of the bank till then); Greater China & north-Asia (Ben Hung); and Europe & Americas (Tracy Clarke).</div><div> </div><div>India now resides in the new ASEAN & south-Asia region under Ajay Kanwal; he assumed his new role on 1st October 2015 based out of Singapore. Kaushal moved over to take charge as regional CEO for the combined Africa & middle-East regions (1st October 2015). A new CEO for India is be appointed (the grapevine says it is Manisha Girotra, boss at Moelis & Company Holdings; and a former India head of UBS) soon and this role will report to Kanwal; both Kaushal and Kanwal do so to Winters, and the Group's management team.</div><div> </div><div>StanChart is to cut 17 per cent of its workforce to reduce costs by $2.9 billion by 2018, and sell or restructure $100 billion of loans, on a risk-adjusted basis - or a third of its total. Winters, a former JPMorgan investment bank boss who took the helm of StanChart in June, described this as an "aggressive and decisive set of actions" to shore up the company. The news of the rights issue and restructuring came as Asia-focused bank posted a third-quarter operating loss of $139 million, weighed down by growing global regulatory costs and rising loan impairments in India.</div>
