The head of Laurentian Bank says the lender’s decision to focus on its most successful business areas while dropping others has positioned the bank well to withstand any macroeconomic challenges it may face in the near future.
“We’re starting to bear the fruit of the decision to focus out bank toward segments where we believe we have strong value propositions for our customers and that can deliver the right returns for us,” Éric Provost, Laurentian’s president and CEO told BNN Bloomberg in a Friday interview.
“This is all about getting into an even more specialized approach into commercial banking… the decisions we took last year aligned with our strategic plan aimed at exiting some of our platforms that weren’t core to the focus we wanted to give this bank.”
Provost’s comments came the same day Laurentian reported results for its first quarter, rounding out a week of earnings from Canada’s largest national banks.
Laurentian reported a profit of $38.6 million, up from $37.3 million in the same quarter a year ago. That amounted to 76 cents per diluted share for the quarter, up from 75 cents per diluted share in the same quarter last year, while revenue totalled $249.6 million, down from $258.3 million.
When it comes to Montreal-based Laurentian’s exposure to headwinds associated with a looming trade war with the U.S. spurred by the ongoing threat of tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, Provost said he believes the bank can withstand them.
“The bank is very well positioned both in terms of capital and in terms of liquidity to face macroeconomic uncertainties, and this is built into our overall model that is driving our provisioning in terms of potential loan losses,” he said.
“So, we feel very good where we stand, and we feel good about the portfolio as a whole.”
Provost added that many of the major industries expected to suffer the most from U.S. tariffs are ones that Laurentian doesn’t have direct exposure to.
“But for sure, if we are to go into a tariff war with counter tariffs, Canadian workers and Canadian consumers will be the first to be impacted,” he said.
With files from The Canadian Press
