[ad_1]
By Nivedita Balu and Manya Saini
TORONTO (Reuters) – Bank of Nova Scotia CEO Scott Thomson unveiled a new strategy for the Canadian lender on Wednesday, focusing on growth at its Canadian, Mexican and Caribbean units while exiting underperforming regions such as Colombia.
The bank said it plans to re-allocate capital from developing to developed markets to ensure earnings are less volatile and more sustainable.
Thomson, addressing investors for the first time since taking charge in February, is tasked with reinvigorating Scotiabank’s Latin American operations, where the lender was expected to take advantage of the largely under-banked landscape.
Thomson said the bank could either exit Central America and Colombia, or invest more capital to turn around the business, while allocating about 90% of incremental capital to prioritise businesses in North America.
“We are accelerating growth in our Canadian franchise and allocating capital increasingly towards stable, high-return markets in North America,” Thomson told analysts and investors at bank headquarters in Toronto.
At its international banking segment, Scotiabank said it was focused on improving returns as it prioritises capital consumption, while favouring high-return businesses in Mexico and the Caribbean.
The lender, the third largest by assets, acknowledged that its return on capital has lagged peers and said over the medium-term it is targeting more than two million primary clients.
Thomson added Scotiabank’s loan-to-deposit ratio is the highest amongst its peers, “indicating a greater reliance on rate sensitive wholesale funding and resulting in more volatile margins and earnings.”
The newly announced strategic initiatives also include earning more on primary clients across its portfolio, growing and scaling priority businesses and digitising processes.
Investors have been waiting for Thomson to unveil his plan to boost growth at Scotiabank’s businesses at home and abroad after the lender reported dismal fiscal 2023 results.
Its Latin American unit, marred by economic challenges and political instability, has shown some signs of weakness. For fiscal 2023, Scotiabank’s adjusted earnings growth from international banking was about 3%, compared with 23% in the prior year.
Scotiabank’s biggest business comes from home, where the personal and commercial banking unit makes about 40% of its income.
The lender, like its peers, looked for growth in overseas markets tapping under-banked regions. Since 2014, the bank has spent about C$7 billion ($5.16 billion) in mergers and acquisitions spanning across regions in its Pacific Alliance markets.
At home, it has faced many challenges including tough competition in Canada’s saturated and highly regulated banking industry, rising expenses and a series of central bank rate hikes that has dampened loan growth.
The company’s shares were marginally lower in mid-day trading.
($1 = 1.3571 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Nivedita Balu in Toronto, Manya Saini and Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and David Gregorio)
[ad_2]
Source link