‘Shrewd move’: Truist forms partnership to expand global services reach

Standard operates in 53 global market locations, including eight locations throughout the Americas. Standard Chartered PLC is listed on the London and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges.

According to the companies, the main focus of the partnership is “creating a seamless and efficient business environment for importers and exporters in the U.S.”

Standard Chartered will provide centralized processing, analytics and tracking services by leveraging the bank’s unique network, local expertise, infrastructure and technology. Examples are export and import letters of credit that will be made available through Truist clients wanting to buy or sell goods in the markets covered by Standard.

Truist also will be able to provide standby letters of credit so clients “can execute performance and commercial contracts with counterparts in markets that require local knowledge and expertise in addition to local delivery capabilities.”

The partnership “sounds like a shrewd move,” said Mark Vitner, chief economist with Piedmont Crescent Capital and a former senior economist with Wells Fargo Securities.

“They are gaining access to financing growing trade with emerging markets,” he said. 

Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi, an economics professor at Winston-Salem State University, agreed. He said the partnership “will enable Truist to better compete for U.S. corporate clientele who need global servicing.”

Madjd-Sadjadi added that “there are some counterparty risks with this sort of partnership since each is relying on the other to complete their end of the deal, but I see little downside for either bank. They are both large, well-diversified banks with Standard Chartered Bank being considered a Globally Systemically Important Bank — that is, one that too big to fail from a worldwide perspective.”