Bank of America has announced plans to open 500 branches across the US over the next four years, and will hire more than 5,400 new employees to staff them. BOA said the new bank branches would include more meeting spots for clients to talk face-to-face with staff about financial products such as mortgages, retirement savings and loans, reports Bloomberg. Standard Chartered Bank has restarted dividend payments after two years of no payouts. But the final payout for FY2017 is just 11 cents per share. StanChart announced a net profit of US$774 million, up from US$478 million the previous year. It grew its loan book by 11.6 per cent over the last year, and revenues rose by 2.6 per cent (to US$14.4 billion) after four consecutive years in decline. Bad loan impairments dropped by 50 per cent. Group chairman Jose Vinals described the return to profit as "encouraging given the extraordinary engine that sits within the Group is not yet firing on all cylinders".