U.K. and U.S. Acted Too Late on Coronavirus, Says Stanchart Boss

(Bloomberg) --

Standard Chartered Plc Chief Executive Officer Bill Winters said the authorities in London and Washington have been too slow in ordering the type of lockdown that China used to control the Covid-19 outbreak.

Speaking on Bloomberg Television, Winters became one of the highest-profile CEOs to criticize the Western response to the pandemic, saying the U.S. and U.K. had acted “too late.”

“I find it interesting to listen to the debate now that we in the West, or in the U.K., or in the U.S., couldn’t have done what the Chinese did because we don’t have that kind of society,” Winters said. “Well, we are doing what the Chinese did; we’re just doing it too late.”

Infections and deaths from Covid-19 in the U.S. have already surpassed those in China, while in the U.K. there is growing public anger at the authorities’ failure to ramp up testing as fatalities top 2,000. There are now almost one million confirmed cases globally, with most new infections occuring in Europe and the U.S.

As Western governments impose ever greater restrictions in an effort to contain the spread of the virus, Asia appears to be returning to some kind of normality as the region’s early and aggressive response to Covid-19 is slowly unwound.

Standard Chartered makes the majority of its money in Asia, largely from its hubs in Hong Kong and Singapore, and Winters said he expected to see a rebound in both markets in the second half of the year. “I think the Asian health authorities, certainly in China, Hong Kong and Singapore, have demonstrated what early and hard intervention can do in terms of slowing the spread of this disease,” he said.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.