Scotiabank reports Q4 profit down from year ago, provision for credit losses up

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Scotiabank reported its fourth-quarter profit fell compared with a year ago as the amount it set aside to cover bad loans more than doubled.

The bank said Tuesday its net income totalled nearly $1.39 billion or $1.02 per diluted share for the quarter ended Oct. 31, down from $2.09 billion or $1.63 per diluted share in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue totalled nearly $8.31 billion, up from nearly $7.63 billion in the same quarter last year.

“I am encouraged by the results of our focused efforts on strengthening the Bank’s balance sheet as we prepare to manage through heightened macroeconomic uncertainty,” Scotiabank chief executive Scott Thomson said in a statement.

“Strong capital and liquidity ratios, improving loan to deposit ratios and increased allowance for credit losses coverage ratios, position us well as we enter the next phase of our growth strategy.”

The bank said its provision for credit losses for the quarter amounted to nearly $1.26 billion, up from $529 million a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, Scotiabank says it earned $1.26 per diluted share in its latest quarter, down from an adjusted profit of $2.06 per diluted share a year earlier.

Analysts on average had expected an adjusted profit of $1.65 per share, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

Scotiabank’s Canadian banking operations earned $810 million in net income attributable to equity holders of the bank, down from $1.17 billion in the same quarter last year due primarily to a higher provision for credit losses and non-interest expenses, partly offset by higher revenue.

Meanwhile, the bank’s international banking business earned $562 million in net income attributable to equity holders of the bank, down from $643 million a year ago.

Scotiabank’s global wealth management operations earned $327 million in net income attributable to equity holders, down from $361 million a year earlier, while its global banking and markets business earned $414 million, down from $484 million in the same quarter last year.

The bank’s “other” category reported a loss attributable to equity holders of $759 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $603 million a year earlier.

Scotiabank said last month that it was cutting about three per cent of its global workforce as a result of changes at the bank and customers’ day-to-day banking preferences, as well as ongoing efforts to streamline operations.