The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.
(Questions from industry analysts are provided in full, but answers are omitted - download the transcript to see the full question-and-answer session)
Question: Gabriel Dechaine - National Bank Financial, Inc., Research Division - Analyst
: Just want to follow-up on the operating leverage comments. Tom, you're making -- and you indicated you expect the expense growth to stay flat
at around the 5% level, so that would imply revenue -- growth acceleration from what we saw this quarter and granted, markets were tough and
all that, but is that really what you're signaling? And by extension, does that mean that we might not see a material outperformance versus that
2% target this year?
Question: Gabriel Dechaine - National Bank Financial, Inc., Research Division - Analyst
: So 2% is still your goal then for the year?
Question: Gabriel Dechaine - National Bank Financial, Inc., Research Division - Analyst
: Switching gears to M&A, hard to ignore the activity that's been taking place in the U.S. the last year and weeks. In the past, particularly with M&I,
that was more of a -- maybe an opportunistic credit cycle acquisition where you've got a lot of recoveries on conservative marks, is there -- in your
own expense basis, let's say, is there -- do you view yourself as subscale whereby that the all becomes increasingly important to drive your efficiency
lower? Because that's what we're hearing from -- as a motivation for other deals.
Question: Gabriel Dechaine - National Bank Financial, Inc., Research Division - Analyst
: Yes. So if I interpret your comments, I shouldn't look at U.S. P&C and say, "Oh, there's subscale versus this super regional and hence, they're motivated
or ultra motivated to do something." The global consolidated picture is what's more important and therefore, I shouldn't read too much into that.
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