Standard Chartered warned that 10 years of record earnings were likely to end this year, with profit set to fall because of losses in Korea, a slowdown in its key Asian markets and tougher regulations.

Shares in the bank, which makes more than 90 per cent of its profit in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, tumbled more than 7 per cent to their lowest for 16 months yesterday.

Standard Chartered said yesterday that operating profit in its consumer bank would be down by at least 10 per cent from a year ago because of problems in Korea.

Profit from wholesale banking is expected to be flat, leaving overall profit down.

“We’ve seen significant softening in this fourth quarter, particularly in financial markets,” said group finance director Richard Meddings.

The bank’s London-listed shares tumbled to their lowest level yesterday since August 2012, when the shares were hit by concerns about a fine from US authorities for breaking sanctions on Iran.

Analysts said the concern now was the bank’s growth prospects. Top-line growth was the key issue, Shore Capital analyst Gary Greenwood said, adding that potentially higher capital requirements meant that it would be difficult for the company to make short-term headway on its return on equity.

Income for the full year was likely to be “broadly flat” from 2012, the bank said, against analysts’ expectations for a rise of about 4 per cent.

The bank said it was keeping a “tight rein” on costs, but they would be slightly higher than 2012 because of higher compliance spending and a rise in a British bank levy.

Standard Chartered has cut about 2,000 jobs in the past year, halting a hiring spree over the past decade that has trebled its workforce to 89,000.

The bank had been expected to make a pretax profit of $7.4 billion for 2013, up 8 per cent from last year’s $6.9 billion, according to the average forecast from 26 analysts. – (Reuters)