Standard Chartered has posted a 10th successive rise in annual profit with a 1 per cent gain that was capped by the bank’s big fine for breaking US sanctions on Iran and rising regulatory costs.

London-listed Standard Chartered, which has benefited from Asia’s growth through the last decade, said new regulations, including tougher liquidity and capital rules and a British bank tax, were costing it “well north” of $500 million a year. An EU proposal to cap bankers’ bonuses at double their salary was also a worry, it said.

The bank reported a pretax profit of $6.9 billion for 2012, up from $6.8bn in 2011 but just short of an average forecast from analysts of $7bn. Income in Malaysia, China and Indonesia grew by more than 10 per cent last year. Income rose 10 per cent in Hong Kong, its biggest market. – (Reuters)