Hong Kong: Standard Chartered Plc is over the worst of its challenges in India that led to loan write downs and dragged on profit, according to the lender’s South Asia head.

The London-based bank is now focusing on expanding its consumer and corporate businesses in the country, where it has operated since 1858, Ajay Kanwal, the company’s chief executive officer for South Asia and Asean, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin from Singapore.

“We’ve had a few tough years, I completely agree, but those are behind us,” Kanwal said. “We want to make sure we get the most” out of the bank’s presence in India, he said.

Standard Chartered, which gets most of its business from emerging markets, last year booked its first loss in more than a quarter century due to a sharp drop in revenue and surging credit losses. Loan impairments from its ongoing business rose in the first half of 2016, due largely to provisions connected to Indian clients and the commodities industry.

Its woes in India are partly the result of an expansion there that failed to fully factor in the risk of lending to some companies like Essar Global, the steel-to-power conglomerate that’s been one of its most problematic borrowers in the country, current and former bank employees said in November last year, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Tighter standards

Since taking his position last year, Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters has been shrinking the bank’s balance sheet and tightening lending standards to boost profitability. Losses on bad loans and other investments fell by more than half to $660 million (Dh2.4 billion) in the third quarter, the bank reported Tuesday.

Still, that exceeded the $612 million analysts had predicted, and profit for the period also missed estimates on a drop in revenue at all four of Standard Chartered’s divisions.

In 2015, impairments surged to a record $4 billion when the commodity market crashed and growth stalled from China to India. The bank is set to get a $2.1 billion repayment in coming weeks from Essar Global, people with knowledge of the matter said last month.