On relative basis compared to other banks they have done well,however on go forward perspective these results look to me as a one off and unlikely to be repeated next year. They have grown their loan book by 7B for the first half but bear in mind these are largely syndicated loans i suspect to orange,safcom,kprl etc. The cost of these loans is unlikely to be above 10%. Most of the income growth is from upward revisions of rates on lending to wananchi and SMEs - those who can't jitetea. Last year Stanchart kicked off a lending campaign at very competitive rates. These loans were fixed at prime + spread. When liquidity started drying up this early year,the same guys revised the prime upwards sustantially. Result is people are paying at 2-3% higher than what they put pen to paper,that counts for a lot especially for new loans coz of amortization....Problem is when liquidity improves and the likes of KCB,BBK and Co-op return to the market with better rates,I can guarantee you,that stanchart loan book will either haemorrhage or they will have to sacrifice those nice margins they are shafting clients with. They have not invested,if you look their rentals are only 21m higher meaning a branch here or there,staff costs are flat. So question is how did they grow,and the technology they keep bragging with,theirs is quite behind,to even pay an elec bill you have to register,to pay dstv you have to register,all other banks you just walk to the wall and sort yourself out and get a receipt to keep. There is no internet access to your account,mobile phone you have to register and wait to be called with password and hope it works. We all know equity has the most advanced banking systems just ahead of NIC. Stanchart has not invested,and am sure their clients are shopping for a bargain on interest rates already. They claim to know the middle income market very intimately,but if you look clearly apart from excel most other products are nothing to write home about,that includes X and Diva. I may be a pessimist but i would rather a bank that is chasing real growth not mirages.