Standard Chartered Agrees to Sell Business in Jordan

A branch of Standard Chartered Bank in London. (Reuters)
A branch of Standard Chartered Bank in London. (Reuters)
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Standard Chartered Agrees to Sell Business in Jordan

A branch of Standard Chartered Bank in London. (Reuters)
A branch of Standard Chartered Bank in London. (Reuters)

Standard Chartered plans to sell its Jordanian business to Arab Jordan Investment Bank (AJIB), the two parties said on Sunday, as Standard Chartered presses ahead with plans to exit seven markets in Africa and the Middle East.

The bank entered into an agreement with AJIB, subject to central bank approval, which will see Standard Chartered's corporate, commercial, and institutional banking, consumer lending, and private banking businesses migrated to AJIB.

Standard Chartered is a British bank operating in more than 50 countries and headquartered in London.

All Standard Chartered Bank employees in Jordan will be transferred to AJIB, it said in a statement.

Standard Chartered's Africa and Middle East CEO Sunil Kaushal said the agreement is aligned with the bank's global strategy "to deliver efficiencies, reduce complexity, as well as 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 the 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 the National Bank of Kuwait's banking business in Jordan in 2022.

Standard Chartered in April 2022 said it plans to leave seven markets: Angola, Cameroon, Gambia, Jordan, Lebanon, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe.

The bank said at the time it was seeking to exit markets where it is sub-scale and narrow its focus to faster-growing markets in the region, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Meanwhile, the Amman Stock Exchange bourse closed Sunday’s session at 2577.59 points, a drop of 0.14 percent. Total traded shares reached 3.3 million worth 4.4 million Jordanian dinars due to completing 2,119 deals.



EU to Keep US Trade Countermeasures on Hold Until August

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a joint press conference with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto (not pictured) at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, 13 July 2025. EPA/OLIVIER MATTHYS
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a joint press conference with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto (not pictured) at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, 13 July 2025. EPA/OLIVIER MATTHYS
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EU to Keep US Trade Countermeasures on Hold Until August

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a joint press conference with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto (not pictured) at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, 13 July 2025. EPA/OLIVIER MATTHYS
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a joint press conference with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto (not pictured) at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, 13 July 2025. EPA/OLIVIER MATTHYS

The EU will extend its suspension of countermeasures to US tariffs until early August as it aims for a negotiated solution on trade with the United States, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday.

US President Donald Trump escalated his global trade war on Saturday and threatened to impose a 30% tariff on imports from the European Union from Aug. 1, separate from sector-specific duties, despite months of intense talks.

Announcing the extension of the halt on retaliatory measures, von der Leyen told reporters the bloc would "continue to prepare further countermeasures so we are fully prepared."

A first package of countermeasures to US tariffs on steel and aluminium that would hit 21 billion euros ($24.6 billion) in US goods was suspended in April for 90 days to allow time for negotiations.

The suspension had been due to expire on Monday.

A second package has been in the works since May and would target 72 billion euros of US goods, but these measures have not yet been made public and the final list requires approval by member states.

Von der Leyen added that use of the EU's Anti-Coercion Instrument was not yet on the table.

"The (anti-coercion) instrument is created for extraordinary situations, we are not there yet," Reuters quoted her as saying.

The instrument allows the bloc to retaliate against third countries that put economic pressure on EU members to change their policies.

Possible retaliatory steps could include restricting EU market access to goods and services, and other economic measures related to areas including foreign direct investment, financial markets and export controls.