Brian Porter, president and CEO of Scotiabank, addresses the company's annual meeting in Calgary on April 12, 2016.The Bank of Nova Scotia’s chief executive officer pushed back at renewed bets against Canada’s banking sector and the risk posed by the housing market, saying that the lender has “a lot of buffer” in the event of a significant downturn.
Brian Porter added during its annual meeting of shareholders in Toronto today that the bank stress tests its $205 billion-mortgage portfolio on a regular basis against some “very harsh metrics” such as a 600-basis point increase in interest rates and a huge jump in unemployment. His comments come after a Veritas analyst recently urged investors to reduce exposure to the Canadian banks ahead of an “acceleration of credit losses” and prominent portfolio manager Steve Eisman reiterated his bet against the country’s biggest lenders, pointing to weakness in the real estate sector.
He told reporters that while it is not predicting a recession, the Toronto-based bank is “downturn ready” and the lender is “comfortable” with its capital and liquidity levels. Porter added that while there will always be opposing views, Scotiabank will “prove them wrong in the long term.”Due to technical reasons, we have temporarily removed commenting from our articles. We hope to have this fixed soon. Thank you for your patience. If you are looking to give feedback on our new site, please send it along to
globebusiness Sure thing
globebusiness Coming from a guy that said: Scotia Bank is now a technology company in the financial district
globebusiness Hmmm?