Strong market position as the third-largest bank in Canada Robust profitability More favorable asset quality metrics compared with those of international peers Risk associated with expanding investments in developing and emerging markets, although somewhat compensated with higher margins Lack of significant scale in some international markets Fairly high dependence on wholesale funds 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
