STANDARD CHARTERED BOOSTED BAD-DEBT PROVISIONS Standard Chartered Plc <STCH.L>, faced with a recession in the key Singapore and Malaysian markets and an ongoing depression in the shipping industry, boosted its bad-debt provisions in 1986, chairman Lord Barber said. Barber said in a statement on the bank's 1986 results that bad and doubtful debt provisions, both general and specific, stood at 545.6 mln stg against 416.6 mln at end-1985. Bank figures showed the increase was almost exclusively in the specific bad risk provision, which qualifies for U.K. Tax breaks. New specific provisions rose by 111.5 mln stg while 71.2 mln stg were reallocated from the general risk provision. In all, a 184.2 mln stg charge was made against profits for 1986, compared with a 100.7 mln stg charge in 1985. Total pre-tax profits fell to 254 mln after 268 mln in 1985. "The continuing serious recessionary conditions in Singapore and Malaysia and the depressed condition of the shipping industry made it necessary to provide heavily against bad and doubtful debs arising from loans in the Asia Pacific region, on top of the normal level of provisioning," Barber said. He said, "the decision was also taken to build up loan loss reeserves by making a sizeable increase in the charges for general provisions for commercial and cross border risks." Barber said due to bad-debt provisioning, the Asia Pacific region made "a negligible contribution to pre-tax profits." He said the profits contribution from the U.K. Businesses was "well maintained, although the reported result was affected by cross border debt provisioning," while Californian subsidiary Union Bank "showed continued growth." "Tropical Africa, Middle East and South Asia all turned in excellent performances and the revival in Europe continued," he said. Barber said the group, which succesfully fought off a takeover bid by Lloyds Bank <LLOY.L> last year, strengthened its capital resources during that year to just over three billion stg, while total assets increased to 32.2 billion. Capital adequacy ratios remained strong, with the primary capital ratio standing at 7.5 pct at end 1986, he said.