 "StanChart cuts target as growth slows, regulation bites")
Britain's No. 4 bank by market value - which makes almost all its profits in Asia, Africa and the West Asia - also said it plans to get rid of smaller, underperforming businesses as part of a plan to sharpen its focus on profitability.
The bank said its long-term target was still to deliver income growth of at least 10% a year, but shorter term growth would probably be "high single digit".
It kept its return on equity target of at least 14%, but said it may not achieve that in the short-term either.
"We are unlikely to achieve double digit income growth for the next couple of years," finance director, Richard Meddings, said at the start of an investor day for analysts.
"In a world where GDP growth may slow and regulation and competition are changing, we need to adapt our framework."
Meddings and Chief Executive Peter Sands said the bank plans to take a harder approach to how they allocate capital and investment and will rein in costs and axe businesses.
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"We do not carry a long list of peripheral businesses and investment. But there are pieces of our portfolio, whether very small geographies or businesses that lack synergies with other parts of the bank, that we are evaluating very carefully," Sands said.
Last year the bank closed its retail banking business in Japan and Sands said it was selling retail banking in Lebanon.
A far bigger underperforming asset is in South Korea, where the bank wrote down the value of its business by $1 billion this year and plans to restructure the business. It has had a hard time there after paying $3.3 billion for First Bank in 2005, and said a turnaround will take time.
Standard Chartered typically aims to increase costs by the same pace as income rises, but said it will target lower cost growth in the next year or two.
Its shares were up 1.8 percent at 1,509 pence by 1231 GMT, with dealers saying the bank's comments were taken well by investors, especially its view of long-term prospects in Asia.