Bank Of Nova Scotia Third-Quarter Profit Increases To $1.9 Billion, Pushing Up Dividend

On Tuesday, Bank of Nova Scotia reported third-quarter earnings that beat market expectations, propelled by growth in its domestic and international banking businesses.

The country’s third-biggest lender conveyed earnings per share of $1.55, going up from $1.46 in the previous year. According to Thomas Reuters I/B/E/S, analysts expected average earnings of $1.48 per share.

From a year ago, profit hiked from six percent to $1.96 billion. This is comparable to a net income of $1.85 billion during the third quarter in 2015.

Up from $6.12 billion a year ago, revenue grew to $6.64 billion.

Also, the bank increased its dividend, from 2.8 percent to 74 cents a share.

The bank profited from a decrease in funds allocated for bad loans to energy companies, with a partial recovery in the price of oil aiding borrowers in paying back loans.

From the last quarter, its provisions for credit losses deteriorated by $181 million.

Chief Executive, Brian Porter said, “The majority of the decline related to lower losses in the energy sector, which is consistent with our previously stated expectations that energy losses had peaked during the last quarter.”

Porter’s eyes had been set on retail lending in Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru, to make use of the relative stability, demographics and growth prospects in those Latin American countries. The bank has operations in over 55 countries.

In a statement, Porter, aged 58, mentioned “We are very pleased with continued strong quarterly results in international banking and remain positive about the medium and longer term potential for these markets.”

Similarly, Rivals Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion, Bank of Montreal and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce all announced results that beat market expectations last week.