Richard Stovin-Bradford

Richard Stovin-Bradford

Standard Bank chief executive Jacko Maree warned that his bank was unlikely to meet its targeted normalised headline earnings, a share growth of consumer inflation, plus five percent this year, but still expected to beat inflation.

The bank had already warned in March that the global growth outlook had deteriorated, affecting the markets in which it operated.

That was before April's further 50 basis point increase in lending rates added to the negative effects of power cuts and food price inflation, which have placed a strain on Standard's clients.

Updating investors yesterday on the first four months of trading this year, he said they had "contributed to a more challenging operating environment than we had anticipated".

Maree said the worst hit area was in its domestic, personal and business banking division, where early arrears and non-performing loans had increased, punching through its annualised credit loss ratio target.

He said consumers' disposable income had been curtailed by the sharp spike in inflation.