Tausi Insider

Canada’s biggest banks reported their fourth-quarter earnings this week, covering the three months ending Oct. 31, as analysts gauge the strength of the banking sector before heading into an expected slowdown (and possible recession) next year. Bank of Nova Scotia, Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank topped analysts’ forecasts. Meanwhile, National Bank, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Bank of Montreal fell short of analysts’ expectations. As central banks raise interest rates to slow inflation, economic fears have held bank stocks back compared with the overall market. Markets are watching these earnings closely for signs of how they will be affected in future quarters by decades-high inflation and central banks’ rapid rate hikes. Here’s a breakdown of the Big Six banks’ fourth-quarter earnings. Bank of Nova Scotia The Bank of Nova Scotia building, in Toronto, on Aug. 22, 2017. Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press Earnings Q4 2022 : $2.1 billion ($1.63 per share) Earni...

The Competition Tribunal hearing into the proposed $26-billion merger of Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. is set to wrap up and final oral arguments are set to be heard on Dec. 13 and 14. Melissa Tait/Tausi Insider After 18 days of testimony, scores of witnesses and tense moments of cross-examination, the Competition Tribunal hearing into the proposed $26-billion merger of Rogers Communications Inc. RCI-B-T and Shaw Communications Inc. SJR-B-T is coming to a close. While the tribunal typically takes months to render a decision, Federal Court Chief Justice Paul Crampton, who is overseeing the hearings, said he would like to release a decision before Christmas if possible. Oral arguments are set to be heard on Dec. 13 and 14, more than a week after Thursday’s conclusion of the evidentiary portion of the hearing. The Competition Bureau is asking the tribunal to block the merger of Canada’s two largest cable companies, a deal in which Quebecor Inc.’s QBR-B-T Videot...

National Bank of Canada no longer allows customers to transfer their existing mortgages after purchasing new properties, meaning clients hoping to move to new homes can’t hold on to low interest rates locked in before the recent surge in borrowing costs. The change, which applies nationwide, was implemented on June 30 as part of “a regular review” of the bank’s service offerings, National Bank spokesperson Alexandre Guay said in an e-mail. The lender did not answer a question about whether it had alerted clients who might be affected by the decision, but Mr. Guay noted that the move “did not involve any modifications to mortgage contracts, which must be communicated formally.” In an e-mail to a borrower reviewed by Tausi Insider, National Bank said it had stopped offering rollover mortgages, which it described as a “financing solution” that allowed borrowers to transfer the interest rate, remaining balance and remaining term of an existing mortgage to a new loan. The feature, which i...

Canada’s most prominent banks and insurers say they are sticking with the virtual or hybrid annual general meetings they adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic for another year. The group of 12 banks and insurers say they recently obtained a court order allowing them to hold the meetings in these formats again. Though they acknowledge the COVID-19 situation has improved this year, they say they want to use virtual and hybrid meetings because the virus is so “unpredictable.” They add that using the formats will also allow them to respect protocols recommended by public health authorities. The group, which includes Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank Group, Sun Life Financial Inc. and Manulife Financial Corp., were granted a similar order in March 2020, December 2020 and December 2021. Rounding out the group are Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Canadian Western Bank, Laurentian Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, National Bank, Great-West Lifeco and Canada Life. https://www.ta...

A National Bank sign on May 30, 2016 in Montreal. Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press National Bank of Canada NA-T has reversed its decision to cancel mortgage portability on existing customers. The bank pulled its portability option last summer but news of it just hit the market last week. The backlash was swift and intense, given that the bank made no formal public communication of the change. Portability is a mortgage feature that allows customers to transfer their existing mortgage to a newly purchased property, allowing them keep the low interest rates they secured before the recent surge in borrowing costs. “We wanted to clarify the confusion” following last week’s news, Tarek Naguib, National Bank’s vice-president of retail financing solutions, said Thursday in a phone interview. He said the bank eliminated its portability option amid surging interest rates, essentially because it was too costly. At the time, the bank had allowed up to 180 days to port instead of the industry ave...

Bank towers at the four corners of King St. West and Bay St. are photographed on Oct 1 2018. Clockwise from top left are Bank of Montreal, TD, CIBC and ScotiaBank. Fred Lum/the Globe and Mail As Canada’s big banks wrapped up their past fiscal year and looked forward into a period of economic uncertainty, they forecast that things were going to be … pretty okay, actually. I wasn’t eavesdropping in the boardrooms. Instead, I’ve surveyed the fine print of the banks’ securities filings, which detail some of the economic projections they use to forecast potential loan losses. All of the banks give some degree of insight into their estimates of Canada’s gross domestic product, unemployment rate and housing prices for the following 12 months. And as of Oct. 31, only one – Royal Bank of Canada RY-T – thought the economy would contract, to the tune of 0.2 per cent. The rest were still putting GDP growth in their “base case” – or most likely – scenarios. We could call those forecasts “the good...

National Bank of Canada NA-T says the head of its wealth management business is retiring. The bank says Martin Gagnon, executive vice-president, wealth management, as well as co-chief executive of National Bank Financial, will step down on April 1. Until Gagnon’s successor is named, National Bank says Denis Girouard, executive vice-president and co-head, financial markets, will lead wealth management on an interim basis. Girouard has co-led the financial markets division since 2016. Etienne Dubuc, currently co-head of financial markets, will become sole head of the financial markets group. He joined the bank’s senior leadership team in November 2022. https://www.tausiinsider.com/national-bank-makes-senior-executive-changes-with-wealth-management-head-set-to-retire/?feed_id=322226&_unique_id=63d63ca7e3a27