StanChart pulls out of British bank bonus pact

LONDON (Reuters) - Standard Chartered dealt a blow to a possible British banking pact on the emotive issue of bonuses when it said it had pulled out of a possible deal because most of its business was outside the country.

Executives from Barclays, HSBC <0005.HK>, Standard Chartered<2888.HK> and Royal Bank of Scotland had been discussing a deal in the wake of lingering public anger against bankers due to the credit crisis.

On Thursday Standard Chartered declared it had withdrawn from the bonus talks, because most of the bank's operations take place outside of Britain — in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

"We were part of the discussions but we have withdrawn from them," said a London-based spokesman for the bank.

"The reality is that 97 percent of our staff is overseas and more than 90 percent of our profits come from outside the UK. We do not want to be in a position where we're having to treat our UK staff differently," he added.