In South Korea, Standard Chartered is taking one for the team. Every bank in the country would love to do what the UK-headquartered lender is doing: introduce performance-related pay in an industry where salaries are traditionally tied to seniority and length of service. Yet none has dared to confront unions, until now. As a reward for taking the lead, the UK bank will now embark on a third successive week of walkouts, with 43 branches nationwide now closed, and all the usual noises from both sides about not backing down.

Investors will ask, quite rightly, if Korea is worth all this grief. Since StanChart bought the consumer-focused Korea First Bank six years ago in its biggest ever deal, the division has posted an average pre-tax return on assets of just 56 basis points, less than half the group. It has been a drag on capital ratios: the 50 per cent collapse in the won between August and November 2008 was a big contributor to StanChart’s capital raising that month. Despite talk in early 2005 of the bank giving itself “a strong platform for growth” in Asia’s fourth-largest economy, StanChart’s assets – most of them mortgages – have more or less stood still since then.

With both revenue growth and net interest margins consistently mediocre, digging in on costs is the only way for the bank to go. Selling is not much of an option: there are no obvious acquirers for a unit that cost StanChart $3.3bn, and not a single Korean bank is trading anywhere near the 1.9 times book value purchase price. As the strike wears on, executives will argue that their Korean business is a vital part of the Asian picture. The reality is that they are stuck with it.