Hong Kong: Banking major Standard Chartered will cut 15,000 jobs and raise $5.1 billion in capital after posting a "disappointing" third-quarter loss as it struggles to return to growth. The job losses are part of a major restructuring that will cost $3 billion, the bank said on Tuesday. No further details of the job cuts were issued by the bank’s spokeswoman.

Standard Chartered in its statement said, more than half of the restructuring costs would come from potential losses on liquidating assets and businesses. The remaining charges would be from "potential redundancy costs" of a planned headcount reduction of 15,000, as well as goodwill write-downs...refocusing on “affluent retail clients” rather than corporate and institutional banking businesses and would exit or restructure $100 billion of assets. Shares in the bank plunged to 6.2 per cent on the Hong Kong stock exchange in the wake of the results -- its stock value has fallen 32 percent in the past year. 

The bank reported an unexpected pre-tax quarterly loss of $139 million compared with a $1.53 billion profit a year earlier. "The business environment in our markets remains challenging and our recent performance is disappointing," group chief executive Bill Winters said in a statement filed to the Hong Kong bourse. Revenue was down 18.4 percent to $3.68 billion and impairment losses increased from $536 million to $1.23 billion for the quarter. 

The bank also announced a strategic review that raised its cost-cutting target to $2.9 billion between 2015 and 2018. "The plans we have outlined today significantly reallocate resources to change fundamentally the mix of the group towards more profitable and less capital-intensive business," Winters said in a separate statement detailing the strategic plan.