Q: The current BNS CEO took over in Dec 2022 I believe. I understand that turning around a ship as big as BNS takes time, however, it is now three years later and charting comparative performance over the past three years shows a weak performance in comparison to other banks. In your view is it time to switch to a different choice or should I ride this horse another quarter or two?
5i Research Answer:
With the international exposure, BNS is seeing a bit more weakness than the other banks. Much of the underperformance over the three year period is due to the last two months or so. If we use an end of January 2026 period, returns across the board for the banks are all quite close. Overall, we don't think the performance is far out of line from peers and the recent performance issues are more related to items out of the company's control.