When it comes to the big UK banks, I haven’t paid much attention to the Chartered standard (LSE: STAN) share price.

But this figure has increased by almost 50% in the last 12 months. And the third quarter results published on Wednesday (October 30) allowed it to increase by 3.5%.

A strong quarter

“We delivered a strong performance in the third quarter with pre-tax profit up 41%, driven by a record quarter in Wealth Solutions and strong growth in our Global Markets business.“

That’s how CEO Bill Winters opened the update, after the international bank posted an 11% rise in operating profit to $4.9 billion (up 12% at a rate of constant change).

Net interest income also increased 9% at constant exchange rates to $2.6 billion. The company said this was partly due to some short-term hedging. But it makes me take note, at a time when UK retail banks are potentially under threat from falling interest rates.

A boost to the wallet?

Is Standard Chartered a good solution to consider to diversify my banking assets while continuing to invest in what I consider to be a solid company? financial sector?

Given that the company is primarily engaged in corporate banking and multinational financial markets, I think it’s possible. This could be a good complement to a stake in the retail sector. Lloyds Banking GroupFor example.

In terms of liquidity, things are looking good. The bank announced a Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio of 14.2%, above its target range. This includes the effect of pursuit share buybackworth $1.5 billion.

And we’re looking at a strong return on tangible equity (RoTE) of 10.8%.

What is it worth?

Standard Chartered doesn’t offer the same kind of dividend yield that we can get from other banks, with a forecast of a modest 2.7% this year.

However, we see lower price-to-earnings (P/E) valuations relative to the rest of the sector. The P/E ratio for the current year is just under eight. This figure could fall as low as 5.6 if the strong profit growth forecast through 2026 materializes. And the dividend yield could at the same time reach 3.5%.

The board of directors raised its forecast for the full year, indicating an increase in operating profit close to 10%. The outlook for 2025 and 2026 is also slightly up. We should therefore perhaps revise these encouraging forecasts upwards.

There are risks

The overall valuation makes the Standard Chartered share price seem too low to me. But we currently face a number of risks in the financial sector that will directly impact this stock.

Interest rates are expected to fall in developed countries, which could further have a negative effect on bank margins. And I would say that this is also a very uncertain time to place our hopes in international banking. East-West relations are far from warm and economic protectionism is rearing its ugly head.

Still, overall, I think this might prove to be a good time to add a few Standard Chartered shares to my sector holdings, and they are on my shortlist. I think the risk factor should subside in the long term.