Few banks have emerged in better shape from the financial crisis than Standard Chartered and, with annual revenue growth of 25% over the past five years, none has seen its corporate and investment banking business post such rocket-fuelled numbers. While it is a high quality problem, this growth could yet become the bank’s biggest headache.

The bankers in the wholesale banking division at Standard Chartered across Asia have clearly been putting ginseng on their cornflakes. Since 2005, revenues and pre-tax profits from wholesale banking have more than tripled to $5bn and $2.5bn respectively in the first half of this year. The global markets business has quadrupled in size, and risk-weighted assets are growing at 20% a year. There are few signs that this growth is getting out of hand. Pre-tax margins in wholesale banking have remained steady in the mid to high 40s, return on risk-weighted assets is going up, trading risk remains far lower than comparable banks and its capital base is less stretched than many rivals.