Standard Chartered PLC

Standard Chartered PLC is a British multinational bank headquartered in London, with the great majority of its business conducted across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East rather than in Britain itself. It was formed in 1969 through the merger of two separately chartered British overseas banks: the Chartered Bank, founded in 1853 under a royal charter granted by Queen Victoria to trade in India, China, and other parts of Asia, and the Standard Bank, founded in 1862 to operate across British colonial Africa. Standard Chartered has retained its historic focus on emerging markets across the two founding banks' regions, functioning today as a trade and corporate bank with a comparatively small retail presence in the United Kingdom despite its London headquarters.