STANDARD Chartered Bank’s asset servicing business reached new heights under her leadership, but Margaret Harwood-Jones is not about to take all the credit.

“It was a journey that we started before I arrived,” says the managing director and global head of the bank’s securities services as she retraces the steps the bank took toward success.

“We had already begun the roll out to local capabilities to appeal to very local clients who initially were wholly domestic, investing everything in a single country,” she says of the bank’s vision to build its capability and grow the business in local markets.

Harwood-Jones, who joined the bank in 2013, may not have started this journey for the bank, but it was her skilful leadership, adaptability and collaborative approach that brought the business much success.

In 2016, Standard Chartered won a number of mandates that sealed its reputation as a global asset service provider. The bank remains popular to Asian clients who invest globally.

To achieve this, she leaned on the depth of her industry experience. She started a career in asset servicing in 1999, when the business was regarded as a simple product known to industry veterans as “custody”. She became HSBC’s deputy head of global investor services in the UK before moving to BNP Paribas Securities Services two years later where she spent 10 years of her professional life. She was promoted from sales and relationship management to head of client segment - institutional services at BNP before becoming head of client segments, asset managers and alternative investments in the UK.

She moved to Singapore when she accepted a job with Standard Chartered as managing director for transaction banking. Her new responsibility was to lead the transaction banking agenda for the Institutional Investor and Financial Intermediary client business globally.

In August 2016, she became global head of securities services for Standard Chartered. From Singapore, she oversees the bank’s securities services business globally, including the management of all its constituent parts namely: sales and client management, product management, operations and technology.

Her main focus is to support the bank’s strategy to grow a sustainable franchise across 40 direct markets in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. She has made great strides in this role that focuses on accelerating relationship and revenue performance across the board.

For Harwood-Jones and the business, the journey continues.

“If we keep the investment dollars coming in, this will keep the AUC (assets under custody) and the AUA (assets under administration) growing and new clients will continue to be onboarded. We can continue on the journey that we’re on and achieve a doubling in the size of the business. That’s the plan,” she says.