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* Q1 operating profit falls in consumer, wholesale
* Bank says confident will meet 2013 profit growth goal
* Bank will add more staff, but may slow pace of hiring-CFO
* Protest vote/abstention at re-election of 4 executives
* Shares fall 4.4 pct (Adds shareholder votes on pay, director re-elections)
By Lawrence White and Steve Slater
HONG KONG/LONDON, May 8 (Reuters) - Standard Chartered faced a protest from over 20 percent of shareholdersover its board structure on Wednesday and warned it could missthis year's revenue target after higher bad debts and fallinginterest rates hit first-quarter earnings.
Shares in the Asia-focused bank, one of the most consistentperformers during the financial crisis, fell over 4 percent.
More than 22 percent of the London-based bank's shareholdersabstained or voted against the re-election of four directors atan annual meeting, including probably its largest investor, Singapore state investor Temasek. Almost 13 percent ofshareholders also failed to back the bank's pay policy.
Temasek, which owns an 18 percent stake, last year abstainedon the re-election of some directors, in part because it wantsfewer executives on the board. The investor was consideringabstaining again this year, sources familiar with the mattertold Reuters before the shareholder meeting. It could notimmediately be reached for comment after the vote.
Standard Chartered Chairman John Peace said he had discussedgovernance with Temasek, and said his bank - which has sixexecutives on its board of 19 people - had a structure thatreflected best UK corporate practice.
"They believe in a different model. They expressed adifferent philosophy to us and I respect that," Peace said.
Standard Chartered said that, despite a weak March, it wasstill on course to achieve an 11th consecutive year of recordprofits, driven by strong Asian markets, but it would ease backon hiring to rein in growing wage costs.
The profitability of banks in Asia has been squeezed byultra-easy monetary policy in the West, which has created aflood of cheap money that has pressured margins for bankscompeting to lend to fast-growing emerging markets.
Operating profit at both Standard Chartered's consumer andinvestment banking arms fell by about 5 percent in the firstthree months of 2013.
Revenues in the first quarter were slightly higher than inthe first quarter of 2012 and Finance Director Richard Meddingssaid profit margins had stabilised.
But he said the impact of Western monetary policy on Asiawas "the key anxiety" that could affect revenues, which StandardChartered aims to increase by 10 percent a year.
"At this point, we'd prefer to wait to see how May and Juneland before we give that guidance (of 10 percent revenuegrowth)," Meddings told reporters on a conference call. "Lastyear we produced revenue growth of 8 percent and it may be thatwe're more likely to be at that level."
The bank, which makes about four-fifths of its operatingprofit in Asia and the Middle East, said it was comfortable withanalyst forecasts for pretax profit of $8.2 billion this year,up 18 percent from 2012.
It said its performance had weakened in South Korea and inSingapore. South Korea's government has overhauled personal debtrestructuring processes as part of a wider social welfareprogramme, which includes more forgiveness on troubled long-termloans, and Standard Chartered said its consumer bad debts therehad increased by more than 10 percent, more than expected.
STAFF COSTS GROW
Its shares closed down 4.4 percent at 16.25 pounds, thebiggest daily drop since they slumped in August after chargesthe bank violated U.S. sanctions against Iran. That ended in a$667 million settlement with U.S. authorities.
"The Q1 trading statement is the first one in a long time inwhich Standard Chartered is down in operating profit comparisonson a year-on-year basis, both in the wholesale bank and theconsumer bank," said Bernstein analyst Chirantan Barua.
Costs rose on the year, including a "high single-digit"percentage rise in staff costs after the addition of 560 staffin the quarter and wage inflation, the bank said. It does notissue full quarterly numbers and releases earnings twice a year.
Standard Chartered has previously said it could hire about2,000 staff this year.
"We will still be hiring, the business still has goodgrowth, but we will be pacing the rate of that hiring moreacutely until we are more certain of the income run rate,"Meddings said.
Hong Kong was once again Standard Chartered's standoutmarket in the first quarter, with income growing more than 10percent, mirroring a strong performance there reported by rivalHSBC on Tuesday.
Income in Africa also rose more than 10 percent. (Editing by Tom Pfeiffer and Mark Potter)
