HONG KONG (Reuters) - Standard Chartered ( SCBFF ) has hired more than a dozen new bankers to its private banking teams in Singapore, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates in a bid to grow the affluent business, a bank statement said on Thursday.

The hires includes Nicholas Cheng, who joined as managing director, head of private markets group. He reports to Foo Tian Ong, regional head of private banking in Southeast Asia and Singapore, the statement said.

Cheng joined the Singapore-based private banking teams with another seven new hires. They will focus on building relationship and offering advisory to ultra-high-net-worth individual clients in the region, it added.

The bank also recruited four relationship managers in Hong Kong and two relationship managers in the UAE, the statement said.

"Aligned with the ambition to grow the affluent business, the bank has been building up the private bank in the last few years," the statement said, adding the hiring of new talents will boost the frontline teams to support the needs of clients.

Standard Chartered ( SCBFF ) reported a 5.5% rise in first-quarter pretax profit in May, as a surge in income from its trading and wealth businesses more than compensated for additional credit losses.

(Reporting by Xie Yu; Editing by Varun H K)