EQB Inc at National Bank Financial Services Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Jaeme Gloyn - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Great. Let's start with the topic of the day. The regional banking crisis or dislocation, maybe we should call it. Maybe first start out talking about why is EQB insulated from some of the factors that play south of the border?

Question: Jaeme Gloyn - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Yes, great start. Great summary. In terms of the deposit guidance, 20% to 30% growth for this year. Are there any factors related to this or otherwise that that might challenge your ability to achieve that growth?

Question: Jaeme Gloyn - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Yes, great. And then maybe last one, just on the subject, are you confident in the same comments that you're making about EQ Bank as you would be for Concentra or even some of your specialized finance partners that might have had some flow-through effects as well?

Question: Jaeme Gloyn - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Okay. Let's shift to the to the growth profile, the most exciting part of the bank. You've launched into QuTbec. We're in QuTbec here right now. What are some of the highlights, and how is that progressing? What are the highlights and maybe some of the adjustments that you've made in

Question: Jaeme Gloyn - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Okay. You answered my next question about the EQ Bank card launch. And it certainly sounds like it's going well. So maybe --

Question: Jaeme Gloyn - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Great. I'm catching like a little bit of vibration. Is there anything we can do up here on that front or no? Okay. All right, moving on then. Still on, I guess, growth, and I was kind of going back to add to some of your commentary around visiting Microsoft and seeing some opportunities to create value through that relationship. So I was wondering you could expand on what are some of these value-creation ideas for the EQ Bank platform with that partnership in Microsoft.

Question: Jaeme Gloyn - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Of course. I'll pause in a minute to just see if the audience has some questions. But before doing that, shifting to fintechs, you kind of talked about some of that as well. But it was a tough year in 2022 for mark to market on some of your fintech investments. What are your views on how those investments will perform in 2023 and what gives you some confidence around that outlook?

Question: Jaeme Gloyn - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Do you see an opportunity to -- or maybe have these dislocations created more opportunity? And perhaps related to that, have you made any adjustments to your capital allocation strategy with respect to fintechs and these partnerships that you're developing?

Question: Jaeme Gloyn - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Okay, great. Let's talk about the regulatory environment. Earlier this year, [ROSI] put out some potential new prudential risk measures. I guess, one, what are your views on those measures? Two, what kind of impacts do you think that could have on EQB single-family growth and profitability? And then, I guess, three is what are some of the strategies you can implement to potentially offset some of those potential headwinds?

Question: Jaeme Gloyn - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Yes, good, just scanning quickly. Okay, nothing from the audience. Payment shock or I guess maybe renewal shock is maybe the right way to think about it in terms of your business. The single-family residential mortgage borrowers are going to be facing pretty significant increases in their monthly payments. I've heard some other banks quantify that number, but it's going to be significant. So I was curious more on how are those loans that have renewed at higher rates? How are they performing from a from a credit perspective? And I guess also, if you're re-underwriting or looking at loans today, how does that -- are we compared to the loan when it was perhaps originally -- originated? And how does that compare? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 29, 2023 / 6:15PM, EQB.TO - EQB Inc at National Bank Financial Services Conference

Question: Jaeme Gloyn - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Okay, great. Let's talk about NIM for a second. And recently, I guess, or last quarter, excluding the Concentra rate, the bank would have reported some modest NIM expansion. And I guess the guidance is that we should expect that to continue near term. I guess the question that I have is whether softer housing market activity, is that going to drive a more competitive mortgage rate environment that reprices, let's say, quicker on the way down than we've seen historically? Are there any other puts and takes we should be thinking about with respect to NIM?

Question: Jaeme Gloyn - National Bank Financial - Analyst : All right.

Question: Jaeme Gloyn - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Yes. Okay, great. A couple of minutes left still, but I did want to sneak this one in around the move to A-IRB, you were well on that -- or maybe not well on the path, but that you were on that path pre-Concentra, maybe that paused it a little bit. What's the latest update from your end? And the previous estimate is that it would help the CET1 ratio by about 400 basis points. So with Concentra, is that still the case?

Question: Jaeme Gloyn - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Okay. All right. Well, maybe the last one then to get on this. On the Q4 call, you talked about guidance for 2023 being a bit back-half weighted as opposed to evenly across the year in terms of your adjusted EPS guidance of 10% to 15% growth. So does that view still hold today? And if I look at how Q1 and Q2 of last year performed, it would kind of imply flattish to slightly up EPS growth through the first half, so is that -- is this a fair characterization? Or how would you reframe that view?

Question: Jaeme Gloyn - National Bank Financial - Analyst : Okay, great. We're out of time now. So, Andrew, thanks again for joining us this year.