StanChart to increase Southeast Asia workforce by 20%

The lender will add 4,000 employees as it taps region’s emerging countries.

Standard Chartered Plc, the U.K. lender that earns about three-quarters of its profit in Asia, plans to boost its staff in Southeast Asia by about 20 percent over the next two years as the region’s economies grow.

London-based Standard Chartered will add 4,000 employees to the more than 20,000 staff it has in Southeast Asia, Ray Ferguson, the bank’s chief executive for Singapore and Southeast Asia, said in an e-mailed response to questions on Wednesday, according to a report in Bloomberg.

Standard Chartered has been recruiting in the region over the past three years as emerging countries account for a bigger portion of the global economy. Ferguson said in May he intended to add about 2,000 people to the 6,000 Standard Chartered employs in Singapore.

The Financial Times earlier reported on Standard Chartered’s hiring plans in the region.