The Standard Chartered bank logo is seen at their headquarters in London.
DUBAI Reuters plans to sell its Jordanian business to Arab Jordan Investment Bank AJIB, the two parties said on Sunday, as the emerging markets-focused lender presses ahead with plans to exit seven markets in Africa and the Middle East.
Standard Chartered's corporate, commercial and institutional banking, consumer lending, and private banking businesses will be migrated to AJIB if the bank enters an agreement with AJIB, subject to central bank approval.
All Standard Chartered Bank employees in Jordan will be transferred to AJIB, according to an emailed statement.
Sunil Kaushal, CEO of Standard Chartered's Africa and Middle East, said the agreement is aligned with the banks global strategy to deliver efficiencies, reduce complexity, and redirect resources within the Africa Middle East region to areas with the greatest potential to drive scale, grow and better support clients. AJIB said the purchase falls within Jordanian lender's strategy to grow its market share in the country, which continues to grow after it acquired HSBC's banking business in Jordan in 2014 and National Bank of Kuwait's banking business in Jordan in 2022.
Standard Chartered plans to leave seven markets, consisting of Angola, Cameroon, Gambia, Jordan, Lebanon, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe in April 2022.
At the time, the bank said it was trying to exit markets where it is sub-scale and narrowly focused its focus on faster-growing markets in the region, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt.