Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' ratings outlook on The Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) is stable, reflecting our expectations that the bank will continue to generate consistent and solid earnings, grow without adding outsize risk to the balance sheet, and maintain peer leading asset quality metrics. We could lower the ratings if the higher-than-peer average (particularly in the international loan portfolio) consumer loan growth of the past few years turns into disproportionate asset quality issues, such that net charge-offs (NCOs) are consistently and materially higher than the peer average or if the projected risk-adjusted capital (RAC) ratio falls below 7% for a sustained period. Alternatively, we could raise the ratings if the RAC ratio is consistently above 10%, all else
