[11] Having established a considerable number of branches Standard was prominent in financing the development of the diamond fields of Kimberley from 1867 and later extended its network further north to the new town of Johannesburg when gold was discovered there in 1885.

In 1969, the banks decided to merge and to counterbalance their network by expanding in Europe and the United States, while continuing expansion in their traditional markets in Asia and Africa.

[12] The bid was defeated; however, it spurred Standard Chartered into a period of change, including a series of divestments notably in the US and South Africa.

[15] In 1992, scandal broke when banking regulators charged several employees of Standard Chartered in Mumbai with illegally diverting depositors' funds to speculate in the stock market.

[16] In 1994, London's Sunday Times reported that an executive in the bank's metals division had bribed officials in Malaysia and the Philippines to win business.

[17] In 1994, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission found Standard Chartered's Asian investment bank to have illegally helped to artificially support the price of new shares they had underwritten for six companies from July 1991 to March 1993.

This now serves high-net-worth customers in Hong Kong, Dubai, and Johannesburg under the name Standard Chartered Grindlays Offshore Financial Services.

[23] The same year, Standard Chartered Bank and Astra International (an Indonesian conglomerate, a subsidiary of Jardine Matheson) took over PermataBank and in 2006, both shareholders increased their joint ownership to 89.01%.

[4][5][6] On 9 August 2006, Standard Chartered announced it had acquired an 81% shareholding in the Union Bank of Pakistan in a deal ultimately worth $511 million.

Among international banks, Standard Chartered has one of the largest loan portfolios in the Dubai market and the UAE as a whole, estimated to be $7.77 billion in total.

[43] Standard Chartered also was named The Banker's inaugural winners of the Global and European Transaction Bank of the Year awards in September 2014, largely "on the basis of its work in emerging markets, particularly Asia".

The investor advisory firm told shareholders it was concerned that targets set for the top bosses in the bank's long-term incentive plan (LTIP) were not demanding enough.

[50] On 6 August 2012, the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS), led by Benjamin Lawsky, accused Standard Chartered of hiding $250 billion in transactions involving Iran, labelling it a "rogue institution".

[51] On 14 August 2012, Lawsky announced that the DFS and Standard Chartered reached a settlement that allows the bank to keep its licence to operate in New York.

[55] On 6 August 2014, Lawsky was reported to be preparing a new action against Standard Chartered over computer system breakdowns and was "discussing a potential settlement".

[56] On 19 August 2014, the bank was fined $300 million by the New York Department of Financial Services for breach of money-laundering compliance related to potentially high-risk transactions involving Standard Chartered clients in Hong Kong and the UAE.

In addition, it has attracted an uncommon amount of attention due to many innovative marketing strategies it used to promote its product, mostly focusing on social media.

[60] Standard Chartered's primary engagement with the fintech community is focused in Hong Kong, working closely with and co-ordinated by 'The eXellerator'.

[70] In 2015, Standard Chartered was widely criticised for its $12bn funding of the controversial Carmichael Coal Mine, with a campaign led by Greenpeace calling for them to quit the project.

[81] In August 2012, Standard Chartered agreed to pay $340 million to the New York State Department of Financial Services over charges that the bank worked with the government of Iran to hide $250 billion in transactions in order to evade sanctions.

[82][83] In December 2012, Standard Chartered agreed to pay a $327 million fine for having hidden similar transactions with Iran, Myanmar, Libya, and Sudan.

[85][86] In April 2020, Standard Chartered was fined £20.4 million by the UK's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation for loans to a Turkish bank DenizBank, which fell under E.U.

[87][88] In August 2020, Enforcement Directorate fined Standard Chartered $13.6 million for foreign exchange rule violations in its 2007 takeover of Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Limited.

[89] In January 2021, the Reserve Bank of India issued a fine of ₹2 crore of Standard Chartered Bank-India for delays in its mandatory regulatory fraud reporting.

[92][93] Documents filed to a New York court in June 2024 claim that thousands of transactions worth more than $100 billion were carried out by the bank from 2008 to 2013 in breach of sanctions against Iran.