LONDON—Standard Chartered PLC on Tuesday said last year's spike in bad loans eased in the first quarter, reassuring investors who feared there would be more bad news Tuesday after a rough 2016 for the Asia-focused bank.

Impairment losses were $471 million in the first three months of the year, around the same as the first quarter of 2015. The figure had soared to $1.13 billion in the last three months of 2014 as the bank marked down loans in India and to commodities companies.

Shares in the bank jumped almost 10% after the announcement.

Revenue fell in the three months, to $3.35 billion from $4.42 billion in first-quarter 2015. Costs were down, at $2 billion from $2.28 billion. The revenue decline was expected as other banks also saw lower client volumes in the first quarter.

Pretax profit was $589 million, down from $1.44 billion, because of the revenue drop.

Standard Chartered is trying to reinvent itself as smaller and more focused after a decade of profitable growth in Asia gave way to a commodities bust and soured loans. Shares in the bank have recovered 35% from a February low but are still worth half as much as a year ago.

Chief Executive Bill Winters shored up the bank's capital with a share offer in December and is working to unload unwanted assets. On Tuesday, the bank's finance director, Andy Halford, said talks are progressing on various disposals.

Mr. Winters said the bank doesn't necessarily think it has "turned a corner" in bad loans and that they could rise again. We are "in no way declaring victory" on bad loans," he said.

One unanswered question Tuesday: who will be the bank's next chairman. Standard Chartered more than a year ago announced that John Peace would leave the board in 2016 but it still hasn't named a successor.

Mr. Winters on Tuesday said the search is ongoing.

Write to Margot Patrick at margot.patrick@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 26, 2016 05:35 ET (09:35 GMT)