Thanks...Steve
BNS investor day was highlighted by a refocussing of its business on North America, shifting capital away from operations in Latin America that have delivered poor returns. BNS' CEO stated challenges in Canada such as the loan-to-deposit ratio being too high along with having less market share than rivals in most product lines, other than mortgages and auto loans, and it has fewer deposits and clients per branch. BNS' top priority appears to be improving its Canadian business. BNS also highlighted some internal objectives of a new transformation office to deliver on strategic priorities that include better productivity and moving away from a volume-based approach to customer acquisition in favor of one aimed squarely at profit.
The strategy seems clear in shifting focus to its North American market with the goal of making BNS more operationally efficient with a focus on profit. There also seems to be internal inefficiencies that will be targetted through improved productivity, along with client retention and attraction being mentioned. This strategy makes sense for BNS, shifting to a profit focussed approach but it also highlighted some of the banks current inefficiences that it will need to turn around and deliver on.