the man who compiles the numbers, the nuances, and the changes, andy halford, standard chartered cfo, apparently now without an office to sit in, but more of that in the moment. andy, 18% gain. talk annmarie, myself, and the viewers through where the spike in the business came for you. good morning, andy. andy: good morning to you. i think we have had a good start to the year. as you say, we had a significant increase in profitability, up

annmarie: andy halford, thank you so much for joining us. standard chartered cfo. ey announced the results today. thanks for your time. very wide-ranging interview with andy there. i loved your question about hsbc going full in on asia, but standard chartered is saying it is not a pulpit. but they recognize that they do not have enough presence in europe and in the united states. it will be interesting to see what kind of market share and ground they will be able to make up. manus: they are a trade and commercial lending bank. if you think of the stimulus programs, not just in the united states under the biden plan, but in europe, there is an entire stimulus plan. they are underrepresented. i want to know if that means he wants to buy businesses there? i am so gutted we did not get to ask him about this -- the holographic watercooler moment. hologram? annmarie: holographic watercooler. their hr team is taking in a bunch of potential suggestions on how you can create a watercooler situation when you are not working in an office. i think some of those suggestions are

anna: that was the standard charter cfo, andy halford. 14 minutes ahead of the european market open,rger joins us for a rundown. dani: this is one of the biggest weeks when it comes to earnings. it is a rare company that does not deliver a beat this quarter. the picture we are getting of the u.k. economy, they released more loan-loss reserves than expected. analysts expected more cash aside. it goes to show a lot of help come government is helping in terms of defaults on mortgages. oil majors, ecuador beat today. -- equinor and shell beat today. anna: thank you very much, dani burger with the latest on stocks to watch. coming up, we are keeping an ion unilever. -- we are keeping an eye on unilever. this is bloomberg. ♪ anna: welcome back to the european market open. unilever is resuming share buybacks. sales beat estimates. with demand for its high-end skincare products strengthening, the ceo spoke to annmarie hordern. >> we have had strong underlying sales growth, that means we are growing faster than our markets. it is thanks to our focus on running our business with operational ex