# Standard Chartered's CFO Says Asia's Data Center Boom Is About to Become a Growth Engine for the Bank

> Manus Costello says the worldwide race to build data centers is landing squarely in Standard Chartered's emerging-markets footprint, and he expects Asia to be one of the bank's strongest growth stories as a result.

- Source: Morning Week
- Canonical URL: https://morningweek.com/article/standard-chartered-s-cfo-says-asia-s-data-center-boom-is-about-to-become-a-growth-engine-for-the-bank
- Author: Morning Week Newsroom
- Section: Finance & Economics
- Published: 2026-10-28T19:10:11.725Z
- Updated: 2026-10-28T19:10:11.725Z
- Tags: Standard Chartered, Asia, data centers, AI infrastructure, banking, Manus Costello

---

Standard Chartered is positioning itself to capture a direct benefit from one of the biggest construction booms happening anywhere in the world right now. Manus Costello, chief financial officer of the emerging-markets-focused bank, says the global rush to build data centers is set to translate into real growth across the bank's Asian operations in the years ahead.

## A bet on where the building is happening

Costello's reasoning is straightforward: data center construction is accelerating fastest in exactly the markets where Standard Chartered has deep existing relationships, financing infrastructure and regional expertise. As developers across Asia compete to secure land, power and capital for new facilities, Costello expects the bank's Asian footprint to outperform other regions specifically because of that buildout.

Costello put it simply: there is a lot of growth coming, and he expects stronger growth to come out of the bank's footprint in Asia in particular, tied directly to data centers.

## The backdrop: a record pace of investment

Costello's comments arrive amid what has already been one of the most active stretches on record for data center investment announcements across the Asia Pacific region. The surge is being driven by the same three forces reshaping digital infrastructure globally: the buildout of AI computing capacity, continued migration to cloud services, and the broader push toward digitalization across industries and governments in the region.

For a bank built around financing trade and infrastructure in emerging and fast-growing markets, that scale of construction activity represents exactly the kind of opportunity Standard Chartered has traditionally positioned itself to serve, whether through direct lending to developers, financing the power infrastructure data centers require, or supporting the broader supply chains that feed the buildout.

## What it means for the bank's outlook

Costello's framing suggests Asia's data center boom is not a side story for Standard Chartered but a central piece of how the bank expects to grow in the coming years. As the region continues to attract outsized investment in digital infrastructure, the bank's bet is that its existing presence across Asian markets puts it in position to finance a meaningful share of that buildout, turning a global technology trend into a regional banking growth story.

---

Originally published by Morning Week. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://morningweek.com/article/standard-chartered-s-cfo-says-asia-s-data-center-boom-is-about-to-become-a-growth-engine-for-the-bank.