Standard Chartered’s private banking unit's underlying pre-tax profits fell by 34 percent to $62 million in its 2020 full year results.

The bank said this was mostly due to non-recurrence of a credit impairment release of $29 million in 2019.

Excluding this, underlying profit increased 1 percent, due to early cost management actions and client engagement driving wealth management income expansion, the bank stated.

Operating income fell 6 percent to $540 million, despite 5 percent growth in the wealth management division.

Assets under management increased by $6 billion or 9 percent, driven by $0.7 b...