For the latest quarter period, the bank’s diluted earnings per share stood at $1.15, against $1.39 in the same period previous fiscal.
Scotiabank president and CEO Rick Waugh said the bank’s continued focus on sustainable and diversified revenues in high-growth markets, together with ongoing cost-containment initiatives are contributing to solid growth in earnings.
"With net income of $461m, an increase of 23%, Canadian Banking continued its strong contribution to the overall Bank results. Revenues increased from higher net interest income as a result of solid asset growth. Lower provisions for credit losses and expense discipline across the business also contributed to these results," Waugh added.
"Net income in International Banking was a solid $448m, an increase of 14% this quarter. Our investments in the higher growth markets in Latin America and Asia continue to provide meaningful contributions to both the retail and commercial banking businesses. In addition, this quarter also includes the earnings from our most recent acquisition in Colombia, Banco Colpatria."
For the current quarter, the bank’s total revenues increased marginally, which stood at $4.7bn compared to total revenues of $4.6bn during the same quarter period of 2011.
The core banking margin in the second quarter of 2012 improved slightly to 2.37%, which was 2.3% during the same quarter period earlier year.
The bank attributed the rise in the margin to higher-yielding assets in Colombia, Uruguay and Asia, partly offset by higher volumes of lower-yielding deposits with banks.
