At Sibos last week, Lloyds Banking Group announced a partnership with Standard Chartered to support the bank’s UK clients importing from Asia.

Lloyds’ new managing director of global trade, Jacqueline Keogh, tells GTR that the partnership with the Asian bank is core to Lloyds’ growth strategy, “but there will be others”.

“To serve our clients we need to have strong partners around the world. Standard Chartered is one of those partners. We will have partners in many regions with different capabilities,” she says.

As part of the agreement, Lloyds will be able to leverage StanChart’s capabilities and directly issue import letters of credit (LCs) locally in 20 Asian markets, including China, India and Korea. StanChart will then be the processor of the LCs in the region.

The arrangement provides UK clients with the benefit of local language and time zones, in-country document handing and local currency settlement, including Chinese renminbi.

“With trade between emerging and developed markets expected to represent 60% of global trade in 2030, we are confident that our network, local presence and 150 years of experience will support their growth aspirations,” says Karen Fawcett, group head of transaction banking at Standard Chartered.