Global - Standard Chartered says there are no plans for layoffs even though 2009 is predicted to be a challenging year for most banks and financial institutions.

This is an upbeat outlook, compared to banks such as UBS, JPMorgan Chase and HSBC which have cut jobs or announced plans to do so to survive the financial crisis. Peter Sands, CEO of Standard Chartered, believes the bank's robust financial earnings from 2008 have given it a timely boost for 2009. "We've started the year very strongly," Sands said at a press conference in Hong Kong on Tuesday, Forbes reported.

While the bank had a strong start in January and February, Sands has warned that 2009 would be a challenging year due to slowing Asian economies. Nonetheless, he said the company, which raised US$1.8 billion in a rights issue last year, was "very comfortable" with its capital position, but he can't completely rule out raising more money from shareholders.

Standard Chartered joins a host of other European banks including Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and Bank of America, which had given positive outlooks on their financial performance recently.