Are these 3 bank stocks worth buying now?

Highlights

• Standard Chartered became the latest key banking institution to face troubles with a financial regulatory body.
• Last week, HSBC and NatWest were both fined over anti-money laundering failures.
• Standard Chartered was fined £46.5 million by the Bank of England for liquidity position reporting errors and controls failures.

Standard Chartered (LON:STAN), a UK based banking group, has become the latest major bank to face troubles with the financial regulatory body. The bank was fined £46.5 million by the Bank of England (BoE) for reporting errors related to its liquidity position and in controls failures.

Financial services regulatory body, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), stated that Standard Chartered was fined in respect of failures that occurred between March 2018 and May 2019. The BoE oversees the PRA.

Some other major banks which have also faced a similar fate with the UK’s regulatory authorities in recently include HSBC Holdings PLC (LON:HSBA) and NatWest Group PLC (LON:NWG).

Last week, HSBC was fined £64 million by UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) due to anti-money laundering failures, whereas NatWest faced a £265 million fine by the FCA for the same offence.

Let us explore these 3 FTSE 100 index listed bank stocks:

1. Standard Chartered (LON: STAN)

Standard Chartered is a British multinational bank.

The group recently reported it had surpassed all of the hurdle rates under the BoE’s stress tests.

The bank’s operating income, for the 3 months ended on 30 September, was up by 7 per cent to US$ 3,765 million, from US$ 3,519 million in the year before.

Image source: Refinitiv

Standard Chartered’s shares were at GBX 429.20, lower by 0.63 per cent on 20 December at 12:38 PM, while the FTSE 100 index was at 7,193.58, down by 1.05 per cent.

The bank’s market cap stands at £13,298.72 million as of 20 December.

2. HSBC Holdings PLC (LON: HSBA)

HSBC Holdings is a major UK-based multinational banking and financial services group.

The group’s BoE stress test results found its common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio (on an IFRS 9 transitional basis) would drop to a low of 10.4 per cent. This is higher than the reference rate of 7.7 per cent.

HSBC aims to maintain its conservative and prudent capital management strategy.

Image source: Refinitiv

HSBC’s shares were at GBX 443.15, down by 0.52 per cent on 20 December at 12:49 PM.

The bank’s market cap stands at £ 90,509.47 million, and its one-year return was at 14.25 per cent as of 20 December.

3. NatWest Group PLC (LON: NWG)

NatWest is among one of the UK’s biggest commercial banks. It was previously known as the Royal Bank of Scotland Group.

As per the BoE stress test results, the bank’s CET1 ratio would be at a low of 10.4 per cent (on an IFRS 9 transitional basis) before taking strategic management actions. This is above the reference rate of 7.0 per cent.

Image source: Refinitiv

Natwest’s shares were at GBX 217.30, down by 0.96 per cent on 20 December at 12:58 PM.

The bank’s market cap stands at £24,758.78 million, and its one-year return was at 37.91 per cent as of 20 December.