Arun Murthy stretches his arm towards the cargo ships dotted on the Singapore Strait far below. "It's always like this," he says, a broad smile on his face. "We are right at the centre of trade flows. We have the producers on one side and the consumers on the other."

Murthy, previously a star banker with Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs, is head of commodities trading at Standard Chartered. From his perch on the 31st floor of the bank's towering Asian headquarters, the 43- year-old really does seem to have the world at his feet.

Not many bankers can say they doubled their business in the first six months of 2011. Murthy can.

He is part of a group of executives who have helped turn Standard Chartered into the world's fastest-growing investment bank. It's not a fact the bank widely advertises - for a start, Standard Chartered hates the title "investment bank", not least because of the negative connotation earned during the credit crisis. It prefers "wholesale banking".

Whatever you call it, there is no question that this part of the business has been a runaway success. The profits have grown by about 750% in the past decade - and kept growing even through the darkest days of the banking crisis.

The group now makes much more money by greasing the wheels of international trade than from selling mortgages and credit cards. About 70% of its profits come from wholesale banking, recent half- year results showed.

David Fuller's view I very seldom buy banks, not being a fan of the industry. However, I have often thought in recent years that if I was to buy one, it would probably be Standard Chartered (weekly & daily) and the article above explains why. We are eventually 'spoiled for choice' in a bear market but in the outside chance that Standard Chartered experiences a further decline, I would probably find it irresistible. The share currently yields 3.25%.