National Bank of Canada Q2 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

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

Question: Gabriel Dechaine - National Bank Financial, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : My first question is for either Louis or Lucie. It's still early, but QuTbec is one of the provinces that opened -- reopened more ambitiously than some of the others. And wondering if you're seeing any trends in your business that you could talk about, whether it's customer behavior, in terms of what they're spending on, borrowing habits? Or any shifts in the deferral numbers that everybody is going to be looking at this quarter?

Question: Gabriel Dechaine - National Bank Financial, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : Very thorough. And I think I said, good morning. I meant good afternoon.

Question: Gabriel Dechaine - National Bank Financial, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : My question then for Bill. It's -- the one I ask another bank and I might ask all of them this quarter is, we kind of saw what we expect to see this quarter, a big spike in provisions. Can you give a glidepath for what you see over the next few quarters or as far as you can tell? And what the thought process is behind that outlook? And I'm thinking specifically of the percentage of deferral -- loans deferral is very high. I mean your's is relatively lower, but they're still high. And some of that might be tactical. People just taking on payment holiday, and how do you see that evolving over the next few months as it relates to your credit outlook?

Question: Sohrab Movahedi - BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - Analyst : I apologize, I had to drop off a part of it. So if the questions have been answered, I'll go back at the transcript. But I just wanted to start off with Bill. Bill, lots of talk, obviously, that the bank had exercised quite a bit of prudence coming into this. Obviously, not expecting this, but I think over the last number of quarters, Louis had said you've been very selective with -- especially commercial loan growth, for example. It is a little bit surprising that you had to increase the reserves so much like fivefold. Can you -- did you find that a surprise yourself when you were sitting down doing it? And what are some of the businesses that may have surprised you? without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. MAY 26, 2020 / 9:30PM, NA.TO - Q2 2020 National Bank of Canada Earnings Call

Question: Sohrab Movahedi - BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - Analyst : Okay. And I appreciate it's late in the day. If I can just ask one other question, I mean, maybe of Louis. Louis the -- or Ghislain for that matter, I mean, I think you've highlighted how much of a year-over-year increase you had in the quarter and the pretax pre-provision, so arguably reflective of the underlying earnings drivers away from the reserve building. I mean what -- do you care to provide some thoughts as to how you see that trending forward?

Question: Sohrab Movahedi - BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - Analyst : Well, you look like you're doing really well on this one.