Best in Taiwan - Standard Chartered Bank

If all regions in Asia have suffered as a result of the Lehman Brothers collapse, then Taiwan, where sales have almost ground to a halt more than once over the past 12 months, might well be the toughest place in which to resurrect the retail industry. On the back of thousands of complaints to regulatory authorities from investors regarding worthless Lehman-backed products, many distributors have decided it is easier to simply shut up shop and focus on other areas of investment or countries

Standard Chartered has never distributed a Lehman-backed product, and continues to maintain its distribution business as well as its dialogue with the financial regulator. The desertion of structured products by other banks has left StanChart free to net a 45% share of the local structured products market in 2009.

Needless to say, it has not been an easy 12 months, even before the Lehman collapse. Competing banks took up the attractive funding rates on offer from the ailing bank, which meant