Two big Canadian banks reported quarterly results on Thursday.
Toronto-Dominion Bank said fiscal first-quarter profit rose 7.9% on gains in its Canadian and U.S. retail businesses.
The lender raised its quarterly dividend 7.8% to 55 cents a share.
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The private-banking prowess of newly acquired City National was the steadying influence Royal Bank of Canada needed amid global and domestic economic shocks in its latest quarter.
February 24 -
The Canadian bank's U.S. wealth management arm is moving toward a hybrid digital-human advice platform, partnering with BlackRock's FutureAdvisor to add robo tools for its 1,900 advisers.
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Royal Bank of Canada's chief executive, Dave McKay, says the company could roll out a loyalty system kept on a blockchain next year as it experiments with distributed ledgers and looks to enhance its mobile wallet.
November 11
Net income for the period ended Jan. 31 climbed to C$2.22 billion ($1.62 billion), or C$1.17 a share, from C$2.06 billion, or C$1.09, a year earlier, the Toronto-based firm said Thursday in a news release. Profit excluding some items was C$1.18 a share, missing the C$1.19 average estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Earnings from Canadian personal and commercial banking climbed 5% and U.S. retail operations surged 20%, helped by a stronger greenback relative to the Canadian dollar and improved contributions from the bank's stake in brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. Toronto-Dominion has more branches in the U.S. than Canada.
"We were particularly pleased that our retail-focused businesses continued to grow earnings this quarter," Chief Financial Officer Riaz Ahmed said in a telephone interview. "We continue to see great volume growth, both on the loan side and the deposit side."
Revenue rose 13% to C$8.61 billion from a year earlier, according to the release.
Toronto-Dominion set aside C$642 million for bad loans in the quarter, up 77% from a year earlier. Impaired loans to pipeline firms and oil and gas companies fell to C$86 million from C$99 million in the fourth quarter. The bank had C$4.2 billion of drawn exposure to oil and gas producers as of Jan. 31, with 69% of the loans to non-investment-grade borrowers, Toronto-Dominion said in a separate release.
Canadian retail profit, which includes banking, wealth management and insurance, rose 4.4 % to C$1.51 billion. U.S. retail operations had a profit of C$751 million. In U.S. currency, the unit's earnings climbed 3% to $552 million. Toronto-Dominion had assets of C$1.17 trillion, making it the second-largest lender after Royal Bank of Canada.
CIBC Beats
Earlier Thursday, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised its quarterly dividend 2.6% to C$1.18, its sixth straight increase, after reporting higher profit driven by retail and business banking.
Net income rose 6.4% to C$982 million, or C$2.43 a share, from C$923 million, or C$2.28, a year earlier, CIBC said. Excluding some items, profit was C$2.55 a share, beating the C$2.37 average estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Retail and business banking rose 6.2% to C$684 million from a year earlier, while wealth management slid 7% to C$119 million, the Toronto-based lender said. Earnings from CIBC's capital markets unit fell 10% to C$244 million.
Revenue climbed 3.7% to C$3.59 billion, CIBC said. The bank set aside C$262 million for bad loans, up 40% from a year ago. Oil-and-gas impaired loans rose to C$128 million from C$125 million in the fourth quarter.
