Welcome to the Laurentian Bank quarterly financial results call. Please note that this call is being recorded. I now would like to turn the meeting over to Andrew Chornenky, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Andrew.
Bonjour à tous. Good morning, and thank you for joining us. Today's opening remarks will be delivered by Rania Llewellyn, President and CEO, the review of the second quarter financial results will be presented by Yvan Deschamps, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, after which we will invite questions from the phone. Also joining us for the question period are several members of the bank's executive leadership team: Liam Mason, Chief Risk Officer, Éric Provost, Head of Commercial Banking, Karine Abgrall-Teslyk, Head of Personal Banking, and Kelsey Gunderson, Head of Capital Markets. All documents pertaining to the quarter can be found on our website in the Investor Center. I'd like to remind you that during this conference call, forward-looking statements may be made, and it is possible that actual results may differ materially from those projected in such statements.
For the complete cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements, please refer to our press release or to Slide two of the presentation. I would also like to remind listeners that the bank assesses its performance on a reported and adjusted basis and considers both to be useful in assessing underlying business performance. Rania and Yvan will be referring to adjusted results in their remarks unless otherwise noted as reported. I'll now turn the call over to Rania.
Bonjour à tous. Thank you, Andrew, and thank you all for joining us today. I'm extremely pleased with our results this quarter and the progress we have made in achieving key milestones on our digital journey. We've also continued our focus on optimizing our funding structure, ending the quarter with very strong liquidity and capital positions. On behalf of the entire management team, we would like to thank the Laurentian Bank team for their efforts. Our employees continue to remain agile and pull together as one winning team to execute on our plan, proving that size really is our advantage. Given the continued macroeconomic uncertainty, coupled with the effects of the recent turmoil in the U.S. banking sector, there are three key topical subjects that I would like to address upfront as it relates to liquidity management, funding, and commercial real estate.
First, the issues in the financial services sector in the U.S. put a particular focus on the liquidity management of banks. It's important to note that our bank's liquidity portfolio has no negative mark-to-market exposure. We do not take interest rate risk. We hedge as appropriate. Second, funding. Given our commitment to maintaining a strong balance sheet, we have been focused on optimizing our funding structure to be diversified, stable, and cost-effective. This includes issuing cost-efficient, long-term securitizations and growing personal deposits, of which more than 85% are insured. We ended the quarter with an average weekly liquidity coverage ratio, or LCR, of about 200%, materially above the Big Six average. Third, commercial real estate. The majority of our portfolio is multi-residential, which remains strong due to the structural housing shortage in Canada and increased immigration levels.
Our exposure to the office sector is around 3% of our commercial portfolio and is well diversified. We remain comfortable with our entire portfolio because of our prudent approach to lending, low loan-to-value ratios, and relatively low level of historical loan losses. Turning now to our financial results. Top-line revenue for the quarter was CAD 257 million, relatively consistent with last quarter and last year. Quarter-over-quarter basis, EPS was up 1%, and our ROE was up 30 basis points to 8.1%. PCLs this quarter were 18 basis points, up 3 basis points year-over-year and 2 basis points sequentially. We remain adequately provisioned, having prudently built reserves over the past few quarters. Our NIM was up 3 basis points on the back of improving spreads in our commercial loan portfolio and in line with our previous guidance.
We continue to invest in our business to improve the customer experience, including the launch of our digital account opening solution and the work to begin the migration of existing Visa customers to our new platform. As a result, our efficiency ratio was 69.7% and relatively in line with last quarter. I am pleased to share that our capital position is solid, with a CET1 ratio of 9.3%. That is up 20 basis points on a sequential basis as a result of internal capital generation. The revised Basel III reforms that came into effect as of February 1st had a non-material benefit on our capital this quarter. We remain confident in our ability to continue delivering good results, execute against our plan, and drive meaningful value for our shareholders under the current macroeconomic environment.
For fiscal 2023, we identified three priority areas to stimulate growth. First, deliver excellent customer service. Second, deposits and optimizing our funding structure. Third, drive efficiency through simplification. I will now cover key achievements under each priority, beginning with customer experience. As we said last quarter, we will continue our focus on delivering excellent customer service and removing pain points by leveraging data from our Net Promoter Score, or NPS program. This concentrated effort is helping us gain a deeper understanding of what drives customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction, allowing us to implement targeted actions. Following the results in commercial banking's NPS that we spoke about last quarter, we are sharing best practices across the organization and have seen significant improvements in personal banking.
A few highlights include: a nine-point increase in private banking, a seven-point increase in brand scores, and a 100% increase in the score of our loyalty team. We have been consistently taking actions to drive these results. Last year, we addressed the top five digital pain points as identified by our customers, and this year, we included NPS metrics in all personal banking scorecards. To provide a consistent brand experience for our customers, we also continue to enhance our public website by improving usability and refreshing the look and feel. I am pleased to report that as of today, more than two-thirds of our external-facing public website has now been updated. As many of you may be aware, in 2019, our branches moved to a cashless, advice-only model. However, the majority of our branches are still large enough to accommodate teller lines and cash vaults.
We are now taking the opportunity to move these branches into smaller and more convenient locations when current leases expire. In addition to generating increased efficiencies, we are also able to update the designs and refresh the branding to improve the customer experience and employee engagement. The second priority we identified this year was a focus on deposits and optimizing our funding structure. We are committed to maintaining a diverse, stable and strong balance sheet that supports loan growth. I'm particularly excited that on April 25th, we officially launched our digital account opening solution to the public, allowing us to grow deposits by deepening our relationships with current customers and acquiring additional customers outside of our branch footprint across Canada. This solution was developed through a strategic partnership with Thirdstream, which illustrated how we can make size our advantage and get to market more quickly.
For the first phase of the launch, we are offering a high-interest savings account and a variety of checking accounts to meet the everyday banking needs for a wide range of customers. To date, roughly two-thirds of accounts opened are new-to-bank customers. In relation to this strategic priority, I would also note retail deposit growth of more than 1% this quarter, and an issuance of CAD 0.8 billion in cost-efficient, long-term securitization debt. In line with our strategy, on a year-over-year basis, we have been consistently growing deposits at a rate that is relatively in line with loan growth. Our third priority is to drive efficiencies through simplification. We remain committed to reducing our efficiency ratio over the medium term by further streamlining our internal processes and operations.
In line with this priority and our strategic objective to focus on our specializations, coupled with the macroeconomic climate, we announced today that we have decided to rightsize our capital markets franchise. This is in line with our commitment to operate a focused and aligned offering in key businesses where we can win, such as fixed income and FX, where we have significant alignment and cross-sell opportunities with the rest of the bank. I've spoken before about opportunities to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. This quarter, two initiatives that I would like to briefly highlight that lead to about CAD 1 million in annual savings were: a reevaluation and reduction of our enterprise-wide printing needs, and improved training and onboarding processes and operations, leading to increased productivity levels. Culture and ESG also remain a significant priority, and I would like to provide a few highlights.
This quarter, we launched our second annual ESG report, which outlines the progress we have made so far on our ESG journey. As part of our commitment to support our customers on their ESG journeys, we recently announced a collaboration with Québec Net Positif , helping Quebec-based small and medium-sized businesses get ready to thrive in a low carbon and sustainable economy. As part of our Giving Beyond Numbers corporate giving strategy, we announced a hundred thousand dollar donation to Windmill Microlending, a Canadian national charity offering affordable loans to skilled immigrants and refugees in Quebec. As we have always said, our culture is our driving force, and our employees are the biggest stakeholders in our success. I would like to once again thank them for their collective efforts over the past quarter.
Their focus, drive, and belief in our strategy has a direct and positive impact on our results each and every day. I will now turn the call over to Yvan.
Merci, Rania, et bonjour à tous. I would like to begin by turning to Slide 13, which highlights the bank's financial performance for the second quarter. Total revenue in the second quarter was CAD 257 million, relatively in line with last year and on a sequential basis. Higher net interest income year-over-year was offset by a lower contribution from financial markets related to the revenue which was impacted by sustained unfavorable financial market conditions. On a reported basis, net income in the second quarter was CAD 49.3 million, and EPS was CAD 1.11. Adjusting items for the quarter amounted to CAD 2.4 million or CAD 0.05 per share, and are related to the amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets. Details of these items are shown on Slide 29. The remainder of my comments will be on an adjusted basis.
EPS of CAD 1.16 was up slightly quarter-over-quarter on net income of CAD 51.7 million. ROE was up 30 basis points sequentially to 8.1%. As guided to at the end of Q1, the efficiency ratio was relatively in line with last quarter at 69.7%, despite unfavorable financial markets and continued investments in key strategic priorities. We are also pleased to announce a CAD 0.01 increase to the bank's dividend to CAD 0.47 per common share. As mentioned by Rania, in line with our strategic priority to focus on our specialization and to drive efficiency through simplification, we've decided to rightsize our capital markets franchise. As a result, we expect about CAD 5 million of annual savings, and the third quarter will include an approximate CAD 6 million restructuring charge.
Slide 14 shows net interest income up by CAD 4.1 million or 2% year-over-year, mainly due to higher interest income stemming from commercial loans, partly offset by higher funding costs and lower mortgage prepayment penalties. On a sequential basis, the decrease of CAD 2.9 million mainly reflects the negative impact of three fewer days in the second quarter. Net interest margin was up 3 basis points to 1.80%. This is the result of an improved business mix, partly offset by higher funding costs. Slide 15 highlights our diversified sources of funding and the bank's liquidity position. For the past few quarters, we've spoken about managing our liquidity higher due to macroeconomic uncertainty.
In Q2, our weekly average liquidity coverage ratio, or LCR, was about 200%, up 30 basis points compared to Q1 and 60 basis points compared to last year. Significantly higher than regulatory and internal limits, as well as the Big Six-bank average. Year-over-year, we've seen total deposit growth of CAD 1.3 billion or 5%, relatively in line with our asset growth and our strategic objective to grow deposits and loans in line on a relative basis. Personal deposits were up CAD 2.2 billion or 11% in the same period, including a sequential CAD 1.4 billion increase during Q1 from partnership and retail term deposits. To further strengthen our funding structure this quarter, we issued CAD 0.8 billion in new cost-efficient long-term debt related to securitization activities.
Given these inflows and the already high level of liquidity at the beginning of the quarter, we took actions throughout the quarter to reduce shorter-term and/or more costly deposits, including deposits from advisors and brokers, as well as certain municipal sector deposits. This led to a 4% reduction in deposits on a sequential basis. Out of an abundance of caution, following the U.S. banking system turmoil, we further increased our LCR position in the second half of the quarter, and this metric was also about 200% throughout the month of May. In addition to strengthening our funding structure, our actions are also expected to improve NIM by about 1 basis point for future quarters, all other things being equal.
It is also worth noting that we increased our core retail deposits by 1% during the quarter and by 5% since the beginning of the year, that more than 85% of our personal deposits are insured. We expect our deposit mix to further improve with the recent launch of our digital account opening solution. Also noteworthy is that given our hedging strategy, the fair value of our liquidity portfolio is aligned with its cost, thereby eliminating any negative mark-to-market exposure. Slide 16 presents other income, which decreased by 8% compared to last year because of unfavorable market conditions impacting financial markets-related revenue, including fees and securities brokerage commissions, income from mutual funds, and income from financial instruments. On a sequential basis, other income was unchanged.
As stated in our previous guidance, Slide 17 shows non-interest expenses up by 6% compared to last year due to salary increases and talent acquisition to invest in strategic priorities, improve the customer experience, and support growth. On a sequential basis, non-interest expenses were slightly lower, mostly due to three fewer days in the quarter and seasonally lower vacation accruals. Turning to Slide 18, our CET1 ratio was up 20 basis points to 9.3%, including a non-material benefit from the recent Basel III reforms. We continue to manage our capital to support business growth and expect to manage our CET1 capital ratio above 9% for the remainder of the year. Slide 19 highlights our commercial loan portfolio, which was up by CAD 1.9 billion or 11% year-over-year.
Portfolio was up CAD 250 million or 1% quarter-over-quarter, mostly due to contributions from our inventory financing specialization. Similar to last quarter, we are providing additional details on our commercial real estate portfolio on Slide 20. Majority of our portfolio is multi-residential housing, where demand remains resilient due to high immigrant immigration levels in Canada. Our office portfolio is around 3% of our commercial portfolio and consists of class A or B assets with an LTV of 62% and financial recourse to strong and experienced sponsors. The majority of the portfolio is multi-tenanted properties, with limited exposure in single-tenanted buildings. Slide 21 provides details of our inventory financing portfolio, where key performance indicators such as the age of inventories and turnover rates are monitored closely.
We've seen the credit line utilization rate come back in line to pre-COVID levels, currently standing at 58%. Beginning in April and for the majority of Q3, we expect to see a normal seasonal portfolio reduction in line with pre-pandemic utilization rates and behavior. The normal pattern suggests that utilization rates should be lower in Q3 when dealers' sales to customers are high. Dealers begin restocking in Q4 and Q1, which increases utilization rates once again. Given the current economic environment, we are monitoring the portfolio closely, and it continues to perform well. Slide 22 presents the bank's residential mortgage portfolio. Residential mortgage loans were up 5% year-over-year and 1% on a sequential basis.
We maintain prudent underwriting standards and are confident in the quality of our portfolio, as evidenced by the high proportion of insured mortgages at 58% and low LTV of 51% on the uninsured portfolio, portion, sorry. It is also worth noting that more than 80% of our residential mortgage portfolio is fixed rate, of which more than 75% will mature in 2025 or later. Allowances for credit losses on Slide 23 totaled CAD 211.6 million, up CAD 14.7 million compared to last year, and up CAD 8.1 million sequentially, mostly as a result of higher provisions on commercial loans related to volume growth and the macroeconomic uncertainty.
Turning to Slide 24, the provision for credit losses was CAD 16.2 million, an increase of CAD 3.2 million from a year ago, mainly as a result of higher provisions on impaired loans in the commercial loan portfolio, partly offset by releases of provisions on performing personal loans. Gross PCLs were slightly higher compared to last quarter, mostly for the same reasons. Sorry. Slide 25 provides an overview of impaired loans. On a year-over-year basis, gross impaired loans decreased by CAD 40 million and were up CAD 13.5 million sequentially. We continue to manage our risk with a prudent and disciplined approach and remain adequately provisioned. Last quarter, we provided detailed guidance for the remainder of 2023, and I would like to note a few key points. The bank's NIM is contingent on interest rate stability and improved funding spreads.
Other income from capital markets business is expected to remain soft until unfavorable financial market conditions improve, which will hinge on the macroeconomic environment. Expenses are expected to remain elevated due to our ongoing strategic investments, including the costs associated with running two credit card platforms as we gradually transition current Visa customers to the new brand platform. We expect loan growth to remain tempered as macroeconomic conditions impact business and consumer spending. As mentioned before, Q3 is expected to have a normal inventory financing seasonal reduction, as dealer sales are high in the summer season. Overall, loan growth for the year is expected to be in the low single digits, as previously guided. We target to remain above a 9% CET1 capital ratio for the remainder of the year.
As a reminder, an LRCN interest payment is due next quarter, which has an impact of approximately CAD 0.06 on our EPS. I'll now turn the call back to the operator.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging your request. If you would like to withdraw from the question queue, please press star followed by two. If using a speakerphone, you will need to please lift the handset before pressing any keys. Please go ahead and press star one now if you have a question, and your first question will be from Meny Grauman at Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. First question is on the LCR, averaging around 200%, and I'm just wondering, are you targeting to keep it at that level for the remainder of the year?
Yeah, thank you for your question, Meny. This is Yvan. We mentioned that we're at about 200%. We mentioned that last year we were 60 basis points lower, which is a more normal level, as you can see with other banks as well. We will, over time, go back to more normal levels. Considering, you know, the current environment and what's been happening with regional banks in the U.S., we just acted prudently. We will, probably manage down, but for this time, we're happy with the level we have in the current environment.
Thanks for that. Then if I can ask on the margin, it was really good to see margin expansion this quarter. I think, you know, I think the street was expecting it to come a little bit later, and my impression was that management was as well. I'm wondering, is that the case? If that's the case, what happened in the quarter that you didn't expect that helped drive the margin higher sequentially?
In fact, if I'd explain the NIM this quarter, it really came from a few factors. The first thing is the business mix helped. We've been growing commercial, and commercial has a better NIM than the personal assets, so there's definitely an impact from this. We also mentioned that as rates would stabilize, we would get the benefit, gradual benefit, and we start to see some of that, despite the fact rates have not fully stabilized yet. This offset, you know, additional funding costs because spreads in the market, especially in Q2, have been impacted with the U.S. by the U.S. turmoil. Going forward, I would expect to continue seeing a small benefit if rates fully stabilize. As you know, currently, we expect a rate increase in Canada and slightly in the U.S..
It's going to be gradual for the next few quarters again. That's probably what I can provide you at this point, Meny.
Just in terms of business mix, you know, on the commercial side, one of your peers definitely took a more cautious stance in terms of their outlook for loan growth and highlighting some of the risks out there. I was hoping you could speak to that, just your perspective on the commercial loan environment in Canada, and do you see risks rising? What's your response to that risk outlook?
Yeah, generally, Meny, I can start by saying we've been guiding you for the last few quarters, that we were seeing a growth in the low single digits for the bank. I would say we saw the environment, and we just, you know, acted prudently in the environment. That's what we've been doing. At this point, I'll let Liam add from a credit perspective, what we've been seeing.
Yeah. Overall, Manny, thank you for the question. It's Liam speaking. Overall, economic growth remains challenging, with slower consumer and business spending. Central bank increases are still expected, and depending on the path of inflation, we may see additional, as Yvan indicated. That said, the housing sector and resale conditions are stabilizing to a degree. Retail conditions remain tight, and housing supply is not meeting demand, and that supports our core multi-residential housing construction business. Overall, we continue to monitor the economic environment, but our expectations, as Yvan laid out, are for single-digit growth. You know, our disciplined lending practices and approach will serve us well.
Thanks for that. That's it for me.
Thank you. Next question will be from Paul Holden at CIBC. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. Just one quick, question on clarification for Yvan. In terms of that NIM guidance of + 1 basis points, how do I read that? Is that kind of per quarter through the back half of the year, or is that kind of aggregate over the, both the quarters?
Just to make sure on your question, Paul, I'll add a few details, and you tell me if I answered your point. What we mentioned is what we've done with our funding strategy this quarter is going to benefit us, we would expect all of the things being equal to get about 1 basis point benefit from this. That's going to help NII and NIM. The advantage this quarter is due to our issuance of long-term debt and having a lot of deposits in Q1 from partnership and retail term deposits, allowed us really to manage down the broker deposits more costly, and shorter term. The reshuffle of that funding will generate about 1 basis point of benefits, all other things being equal. That's what you were looking for, Paul?
Okay, I understand. That's the shift in deposit mix that's already taken place. I guess my real question then would be, do you care to offer any kind of NIM guidance through the back half of 2023?
Yeah, that's a big question, Paul, because everybody is looking right now at what BOC is going to do or what the Fed is going to do in the U.S. We mentioned that the benefits we would get in the NIM would come with stability of rates, so it slowed down with this quarter versus what we had seen in Q1, Q4 before. If it continues to stabilize, we may see a small, slight increase in the NIM. It's going to be probably gradual. Based on what we hear from BOC or Fed at this point, I would probably expect it to be later in the year than in Q3. That's one benefit. Also, as the rates stabilize, we mentioned also contractually we have some of our loans that will benefit from it.
We mentioned this would be gradual this year, but based on the feedback from central banks, I would expect more the latter part of the year.
Okay. My second question is, with respect to the real estate construction lending business specifically, I mean, you covered off, I think, the other components of CRE well. How are you viewing the risk in construction lending? Specifically, I see it continues to be an area of growth, you know, my impression would be you don't see elevated risks necessarily, but it's become very topical given some recent events. Maybe you can walk us through your comfort level around risk and how you're mitigating risk in that particular portfolio.
Sure, Paul, it's Liam. You know, as Rania indicated in her remarks, the majority of our CRE is multi-residential housing construction. You know, given the lack of supply in Canada, I think recent statistics suggesting 2% vacancy, and demand is way outstripping supply. There is a lot of demand for this. We focus on established Tier 1 and Tier 2 developers with good track records. There are pressures, as you mentioned, in the broader commercial real estate market, our construction portfolio remains very strong. We also approach things from a discipline perspective with regard to LTV, we've been adjusting our underwriting standards commensurate with conditions, additional views with regard to contingencies.
Very happy with how the portfolio is behaving right now, given the developers we have. We're also maintaining a disciplined approach with regard to our reserves. Historic losses have been small, albeit, forward-looking conditions are worse, but we've got a solid reserve against that portfolio as well. Quite comfortable with how it stands right now.
Okay. Just to be clear on this development business or construction business, it is also mostly multifamily, not single individual, homes?
In the majority, it's multi-residential housing construction. We do have some development projects as well.
Okay. Okay, that's good. One last question, and to get Rania involved here. When I look at your KPIs on Slide 31, I see all green dots apart from one. Of course, I got to ask on the one that's not a green dot. The new bank account openings, that 1's running a little bit behind target. I think obviously that's an important one for the bank and important for all banks currently, given the cost of liquidity. Maybe talk to us a little bit about why it's behind target currently and the plan to get it back on target.
Yeah, good morning, Paul. Thanks for the question. Yes, it's the only one on that slide, so I'll definitely comment on it. Listen, we did say, you know, it was all dependent on the speed by which we can launch our digital account opening, program and platform. What we decided last year was to do kind of a phased rollout to ensure, you know, the customer experience is excellent, and so we started with our employee base. There was a delay in terms of our digital, public launch, which just happened in April, and we're extremely excited about the uptick. That was with almost no marketing at all, so we're already starting to see, interest in the market.
What's really interesting is that over two-thirds of the account opening are coming, they're net new customers to the bank, and a large percentage of them, too, are outside of Quebec. It really serves and is very much aligned with what we said all along, is that we'd like to deepen our existing customer relationships, we'd like to expand within Quebec, but we also want to expand across the country. I would say, you know, early days, but we are committed. It's a target that everybody has in their scorecards in the field as well. As a management team and as an employee base, we're all committed to attracting net new customers. It's early days, but positive results thus far.
That's great. I'll leave it there. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question will be from Lemar Persaud at Cormark. Please go ahead.
Thanks. I want to start off on the tax rate. I just want to come back to the lower tax rate over the past couple of quarters and the budget proposal to remove the break for financial institutions on certain dividends received. How do you see your tax rate evolving, should this receive, I guess, royal assent?
Wait for capital gains and stock dividends.
Thank you, Lemar, and for your over-year background for your info. The first, the tax rate is, what? 16.3% this quarter, which is in line with the guidance we had provided. At this point, for Q3, I would keep the same guidance in the same range. Your question is good because there's been a lot of noise about new legislations, including sales tax on card services or taxes, in terms of dividend income for banks. I would say for those, we don't expect any material impact. The tax rate on card services, there's also what we call a retroactive potential impact, but we did provision for that. If it happens, there would not be an impact for us.
For the changes on the dividends, we don't have that much, dividend income instruments at the bank, so the impact should be material for us.
Okay, thank you. Apologies there. Alexa was trying to answer your question. Just moving on to the capital markets here, can you talk about how we should think about this restructuring? I know at Investor Day, you guys talked about, you know, looking for better alignment with the commercial bank and a more focused kind of product offering. Should we think about this as a one-and-done restructuring, or could there be more to come?
Yeah. Lemar, I'll take your question. It's Rania. All along, in line with our objective that we outlined at our Investor Day, it was really to always our commitment was to operate a focused and aligned offering in our key businesses, with really a focus on our specializations and where we can win. You know, fixed income and FX have been great businesses for us, where we have significant alignment and cross-sell opportunities, along with some other sectors as well. You know, given the market conditions, and they've been unfavorable for quite some time, right? We made the decision to kind of right size. It's very much in line with our strategic objectives.
We're going to continue to kind of grow that business, but in alignment and with opportunities where we know we can win and that are fully aligned with the overall strategy of the bank.
Okay. Should we think about this as, you know, potentially an ongoing issue? Is that the way I'm kind of reading through this, like there could be more restructuring to come?
The way I would say it is, like any good operator, you're constantly reviewing all of your operations across the institution, right? Not in any one sector, and you're constantly reevaluating. Listen, if markets turn, and we need to add additional resources in our capital markets businesses and where we can win, we will be looking to reassess that. We're constantly kind of reviewing how to optimize our operations and making sure that we operate in the businesses where we can win.
Okay, appreciate that. You know, this is going to be a tough one, but how should we think about. Maybe the way to phrase this is: How should we think about the earnings power of the capital markets business? I appreciate, Yvan, there's a lot of headwinds in capital markets right now, so maybe that's the way I'm going to kind of phrase it. Like, does this reduce the earnings power of the capital markets franchise? Are some of the, you know, benefits going to come through to kind of fill the gaps here? I don't know if I'm asking the right way, but hopefully you kind of understand where I'm going at with this.
Yeah, just to add a bit of color there. Our business is mostly C business. That's where we evolved over the last three years. What's been happening with the current environment, you know, there's less activities in terms of issuances, so definitely it's softer than it was a year ago. That's why, as you would expect, the market will recover at one point. It's going to be more stable there because there's going to be more activities. We should see some of that coming back in our favor in the upcoming quarters. The next one is a summer quarter, so we should not expect too much activity during the summer, but technically, the market's going to recover, and that should be an improvement of other income when it happens.
Lemar, it's Rania. Just to add, just to put it in perspective, is the reduction is less than 10%, in line with similar actions that others in the market have taken over the last 12 months.
Okay, that's helpful. Then maybe the final one for me. I want to come to this other income, like, card services revenue. There's a relatively sharp decline in that, in that line item in other income. Is there, like, maybe talk to me about that, Yvan. Is there some element of seasonality that we should be thinking about in that line, and kind of what drove the decline in card services revenue this quarter? Thanks.
In fact, it's a good question. Card services revenues, you would see a seasonal impact, right? What's leading to Christmas, including Christmas, will have more transaction volume. This quarter is probably one of the lowest you would see seasonally in the year. Most of it happened really.
Okay, appreciate that. Thanks again for the time, guys, and apologies for Alexa interjecting there.
No problem.
At least it wasn't ChatGPT.
Thanks.
Thank you. Next question will be from Marcel McLean at TD. Please go ahead.
Okay, thanks. I'm going to take one more stab at commercial real estate outlook. Try to ask it quite a different way. You know, we're at a time where we're seeing some of your peers and people in the industry leaning away from growth there, whereas you guys are still putting up growth. Going forward, are you guys seeing this as a, maybe an opportunity to try to take some market share, given the risk, reward trade-offs? Is that something you view as attractive right now, or what's sort of the outlook going forward from here?
Yeah. Hi, Marcel. It's Éric. I'm going to take this one. Thank you for the question. Like, right now, like, the market has definitely slowed down, so there's still some good projects out there being started, mostly in the multi-res sector, just in terms of the demand out there. Like, we're not changing our approach. We're keeping the same disciplined underwriting processes we have in place, and we'll still be looking out for opportunity with our Tier 1 and Tier 2 developers out there. Don't expect us to go outside of our current practices. We will keep the current pace and make sure that the projects we onboard fit our current credit appetite.
Okay, thanks. Then just two quick ones on CRE. Is all the exposure Canadian, or if not, do you have the split of U.S. and Canada? Also, do you have the stat for how much of what percentage of the book is in retail?
Yeah, actually, all our assets are in Canada. I would say that, referring to Page 20 of our investor deck, like, we have about 3% of the book that is retail, so about CAD 600 million. Again, small retail, suburb type, that we feel good about with good key anchors and low LTVs. We're comfortable with the low metrics we have out there for those loans.
Okay, thanks for that. My other question was on expenses. You know, you commented they were elevated, but really in the context of what we're seeing across the industry, they weren't that high, and the largest difference I noticed was on comp expense. Just wondering if you could comment on that. Like, headcount is up slightly year-over-year, but comp is barely moved. Just wondering what's driving that, if that's something that's sustainable or we might see an acceleration there as people compete for talent.
Yeah. So maybe I'll kick off this question. It's Rania. Listen, at the end of the day, bottom line is we remain committed to our medium-term target of managing our efficiency ratio to less than 65%. Obviously, similar to all industries, base salaries have been impacted by inflation, but we've managed it very prudently throughout the cycle. Inflation has also impacted vendor costs as well. I want to kind of put it in perspective. If you combine the impacted NIM pressure that we've had over the past year, as well as the unfavorable financial market conditions, if you take your, our NIM, and hold it steady, as well as our other income, our efficiency ratio would actually sit at 66%.
That's despite us putting significant investments in our strategic investments, whether it's digital onboarding or digital Visa. You know, we've said all along in the last couple of years, cost discipline is definitely something that's in our, in our culture, and focusing on identifying operational efficiencies so we can kind of continue to drive that. You know, we're going to maintain that discipline on both discretionary spend as well as identifying, continuing to identify efficiency plays that will help us deliver on that medium-term target of less than 65%.
Okay, appreciate that. On that 65%, You highlighted the running two Visa platforms as one of the additional costs that will come out. Just wondering when that transition is expected to be complete and how much of an impact that really has on the overall number?
We publicly launched the Visa platform for new customers, and we're in the process of migrating our existing customers over to the new platform. At this point, you know, we're targeting that that's going to be delivered in the latter part of the year. Once that happens, then those costs will come out.
Okay. Thank you. That's all for me.
Thank you. Next question will be from Sohrab Movahedi at BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Okay, thank you. Rania, I just wanted to maybe come back to, both in the context of, the expense ratio and the medium-term targets. I mean, some of the performance indicators you've given are 2024. Obviously, we're only partly through 2022 and 2023. You know, employee turnover, if you reduce that, does that actually, which is one of your targets, does that create a headwind vis-a-vis the 65% expense to revenue ratio? Do you need more employee turnover to be able to reprice the cost base, which would be you know, I guess kind of running contrary to your target of reducing turnover?
Sohrab, what I would say is that we've been prudently managing our expense line, not just this quarter, but throughout the year and the prior years. We're constantly looking at, you know, what's needed to deliver on our strategic investments, what percentage are full-time employees versus contract employees, right? Making sure we're managing our employee base and our salary costs efficiently, as well as identifying other efficiency opportunities as well. I think we've proved that, you know, we can deliver on that, and that's despite the inflationary pressures that have happened. Again, we continue to. We're committed to delivering that medium-term target of 65% by the end of next year.
Okay. Maybe just to put a finer point on it, that to achieve that 65% obviously depends on the revenue environment as well. Will that include right-sizing the complement of FTE still? Or is it primarily through decommissioning of platforms and, you know, getting, I don't know, synergies on the outsourcing and operating efficiency improvements of the like? Obviously, you right-sized your capital markets. Is there an opportunity to right-size elsewhere as well?
Yeah. Again, we're going to continue to maintain our discipline on all discretionary spends, as well as continuously identifying efficiency plays. I mean, right-sizing the capital markets was one example this quarter, but that's again, in line with our strategy of making sure that we kind of concentrate on specializations where we can win, and in sectors where, you know, things have slowed down dramatically. The other example is the right-sizing of our branch space, right? There's a huge opportunity there. This quarter alone, we were able to rightsize one of our branches where, as I said in my comments, if you recall, you know, we moved to an advice-only structure in 2019.
When you walk into our branches, you've got all these teller spaces and cash vaults that are not necessary. As leases are coming up, we're reducing that branch space. One example is a lease came up that we just moved into a smaller footprint, and we were able to reduce our lease by CAD 250,000 a year, or CAD 225,000 a year. We're gonna be very opportunistic, and we've got a number of those. We reduced our printing costs significantly, and that's generated some savings. We've got, you know, as part of our simplification strategy and driving efficiencies, we've got lots of different plays. In the meantime, we're gonna continue to maintain our discipline on discretionary spend.
Okay, thank you for taking my questions.
Thanks, Sohrab.
Next question will be from Nigel D'Souza at Veritas Investment Research. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. I had a couple questions for you. The first on deposits. When I look at strategic and retail deposits quarter-over-quarter, looks like that's down sequentially. You know, I might correct in understanding that the outflows in those categories this quarter exceeded any inflows raised. I was wondering if you could kind of speak to the characteristics of the deposits that are leaving the bank and the deposits that are coming in terms of newer or existing client relationships, and in terms of whether you're winning deposits on pricing and offering higher rates.
Thank you, Nigel. Maybe what I can do is to step back and explain a bit what's our funding strategy, right? That, that will probably help with what we've been doing. The first one, as I mentioned previously, we want to grow deposits in line with the loan growth, you know, on a relative basis, and that's what we've done over the last 12 months, and we grew deposits meaningfully. Including in Q1, we gathered CAD 1.4 billion of retail term deposits and partnership deposits, big amounts of gathering in Q1. We finished Q1 very strong in terms of the liquidity level. Second objective is really optimizing and strengthening the funding structure. We also did CAD 800 million of securitization, which is long-term and cost efficient during the quarter.
That can be, you know, considered pretty much deposits as well. There's great characteristics there because it's long-term, it's aligned with the assets, it's cost efficient. It's, in fact, more cost efficient than going and getting broker deposits or municipal deposits that we discussed. The third one is really optimizing our cost of fund, and that's what we're doing by doing this. This should improve, as I mentioned before, by about one NIM, all other things being equal. All doing that with, you know, great LCR level and very prudent LCR in the context. We also have retail deposits that have been growing, you know, in the last six months by 5% and also growing in Q2.
What we've done this quarter is really using the high level of liquidity we have, the additional, secured funding, cost-efficient that we got from securitization, to reduce what is shorter term, more costly, as mentioned. The broker deposits is a good example of that. We reduced it by CAD 1.3 billion over the last six months. That's a good example of what we've been doing. We reduced rates where we could, and we have such a great liquidity position that helps us, you know, in the context of what's happened and been happening in the U.S., we have a big liquidity war chest.
Okay, I guess, appreciate that, but I guess what I'm getting at is, could you speak to, you know, what proportion of your deposits you consider core versus non-core? How does that relate to your liquidity coverage ratio? It is running, as you noted, at pretty healthy levels above your peers. Is that because you see your deposit base as perhaps less stickier, you know, more non-core deposits, and there's greater risk of some deposit outflows here? How does that relate to your core, non-core and LCR?
Yeah, thank you for your question, Nigel, but I'll just go back and say what we've done is we did exactly the inverse of what we mentioned. We stabilized and secured the deposit base further versus where we were. We have more secured funding, longer term funding, but we did that also on a cost-efficient basis. What's really interesting is that we mentioned also over the last two quarters, that we were taking liquidities up, considering what was happening in the environment, and that's what we've done. I mentioned in my script that we were 60 basis points higher than where we were a year ago, so we gradually increased the level of liquidity, and it turns out that we were in a very safe, secure position with all the turmoil that we had this quarter.
Overall, very happy with what we have. As mentioned before to another analyst, of course, at one point we'll take it down, but we just want to make sure that we do it in a prudent way, considering what's happening in the environment out there. There's no way you should read into the LCR, that it's because of instability. It's in fact, the reverse. It's by being more stable that you increase your LCR.
Okay, that makes sense. Switching to credit losses, any color on what drove the reversal and release of provisions for personal loans? Just trying to get a sense of why we're seeing kind of favorable reversals there, given the macroeconomic uncertainty.
Thank you, Nigel. It's Liam, for your question. Overall, we saw a decrease in investment loans from a volume perspective. Given that volume drop, we proportionately reduced-
... The reserves against that book. We remain very well provisioned against our retail book and comfortable with the levels we have at this time.
Okay. The last quick question, just on your inventory financing portfolio. You know, any comments on what the expected loss rate might be through a cycle, just to get a sense of sizing it and, you know, what proportion of your book does have that creditor protection or credit protection versus the portion that doesn't have some of that credit enhancement? Any color there would be appreciated.
Well, we have multiple layers of protection on this book, Nigel. We have the collateral itself, we have the manufacturer support, we have the dealer equity, we have personal guarantees backing those dealers. We also have a disciplined process of curtailments if we're not seeing the turnover. We're happy with the portfolio. It's returning to pre-pandemic levels, and quite frankly, the level of losses have not been material, and we're well reserved. I, you know, I think we've indicated in the past a return to pre-pandemic levels of utilization. Expect to see some seasonal behavior, but the portfolio is holding up very well.
Okay, that's it for me. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question will be from Joo- Ho Kim at Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks. Good morning. Just wanted to go back to that discussion on the capital markets restructuring in Q3. I do see the savings on the cost side, but is there any lost revenues that we should think about with the restructuring? Just curious if that was disclosed.
Yeah. Ju, it's nice to, nice to hear your voice this morning. What I would say is, as I said in my opening remarks, the right sizing should have no impact on the revenue. We're going to continue to focus on our areas of strength. Again, should the market conditions, you know, change and, there are opportunities for us to kind of grow again in the areas and the sectors that we can compete to win, we'll be reassessing that. At this point, the impact has really been on the sectors that have seen significant slowdown. I would say, no impact from a revenue perspective.
Okay. Got it. Thank you. Just on your Gross Impaired Loans, it's up sequentially, I do see some new formations there that ticked up higher this quarter. Just wondering, can you comment on what, you know, can you give us some more detail on just, you know, whether it came from a certain geography and certain sectors? Also on the repayment side, for that matter, also looked higher as well this quarter. Just wanted to get a sense if this was just more regular course recovery or if there was anything specific there as well. Thanks.
Thank you for the question. It's Liam. I'll walk through it. Overall, the GIL migration was in a few commercial files, no specific geography or sectors. It's really to be expected in this environment that you would see an uptick, and I think you've seen it in the industry as a whole. Overall, very comfortable with our provisioning against these files. Indeed, the files that migrated into impaired were already fully reserved, consistent with our prudent and disciplined reserving approach. I'd note that we've been very disciplined in terms of building reserves as the macroeconomic conditions have evolved, and that disciplined approach has served us well.
We have a customer-focused way of working these files out, and usually see good results as a result of that discipline.
Got it. Thank you. That's it from me.
Thank you. Next question will be from Pranay Kurian at National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Just had a question on expenses. You had highlighted last quarter that expense would be elevated in the first half. I'm just wondering about the technology premises cost. I think that's in up to around CAD 49 million. Do you see that staying at the same level, or does that sort of fade as the year goes on?
Yeah, thank you for your question, and nice to hear you for the first time, I believe. The technology cost, the increase that you see there is in relation to our strategic projects, and as we are improving the technology of the bank, we've been investing. For example, for the digital solution that we're going to be putting in place is a great example of that. The increase there is definitely adding talent to make sure that we have what we need to support the strategic projects that we have. But also, as we invest in those projects, there is some depreciation coming from those as well that do show up on the technology line. At this point, I would expect that line to remain roughly in line with the level where we are.
Okay. You know, when I look at employee costs up 2% year-on-year, I mean, I know there are three fewer days, but going forward, do you see it, you know, trending up again, or should it stay flat?
In fact, as mentioned, Rania mentioned a few minutes ago, we've been managing very prudently our cost base, and that includes the people and the employees as well. We did absorb, you know, the salary increases in the environment by managing efficiently, you know, the employee base. We're just going to continue doing the same thing, and the best metric to use is really that we intend to improve the efficiency ratio to below 65% in the medium term. That's something that we should be focused on. We mentioned that in Q3, we'll have still elevated expenses related to Visa, migration, and strategic development. We should probably expect an efficiency ratio in the same ballpark.
All right. All right. Just lastly, on the NIM, you had mentioned that you expect inventory utilization levels to trend down in Q3. I'm guessing that that boosted your NIM in this quarter, you know, what's the negative impact that that would have if you were to go down to, say, 45% utilization? How would that impact your NIM outlook?
Yeah, the key point to remember is that when the volume goes down in a quarter, it goes down gradually. When it goes up in a quarter, it goes up gradually. When you could, like, you take a look at Q2 versus Q3, there may be some impact depending on the exact volume, but it should not vary the NIM that much, Q2 versus Q3.
All right. All right. That's helpful. Thanks.
Thank you. That is all the time we have for questions. I would like to turn the meeting over to Rania.
Thank you for your questions today. We remain focused on our strategic plan and delivering against our three core priorities for this year. Customer experience is top of mind, and I am pleased with the results of our reimagined Visa experience, including the number of customers signing up for our new suite of cards from across Canada. Deposits and an optimized funding structure remain a priority. Our digital account opening solution is supporting this objective by gathering cost-efficient deposits from customers across the country. We will continue to take the necessary actions to simplify and automate processes to reduce our efficiency ratio. We take a prudent approach to credit and will manage capital to support growth. We are confident in our ability to execute on our plan and deliver meaningful value for our shareholders. Thank you again for joining the call, and I hope everyone has a nice summer.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude your conference call for today. Once again, thank you for attending, at this time, we do ask that you please disconnect your lines.