Royal Bank of Canada (RY:CA) Presents at Scotiabank's 27th Annual Financials Summit Transcript

SA Transcripts 162.13K Followers Follow Royal Bank of Canada ( RY:CA ) Scotiabank's 27th Annual Financials Summit September 9, 2026 9:30 AM EDT Company Participants David McKay - President, CEO & Director Conference Call Participants Mehmed Rizvanovic - Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets, Research Division Conversation Mehmed Rizvanovic Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets, Research Division Awesome. Maybe we could start with the quarter just because it was a bit of an outsized result once again, basically... David McKay President, CEO & Director It's a good thing. Mehmed Rizvanovic Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets, Research Division I mean you beat expectations. Your ROE now sits at north of 18%. Just maybe start with the ROE actually. Are you somewhat surprised with how much it's gone in terms of the positive traction that you've seen? David McKay President, CEO & Director No. I mean you saw us 2 years ago set a 17-plus percent ROE target, but we kept saying plus-plus because we knew the significant opportunities we had to drive the market-leading ROE in the country and improve upon that. You look at the drivers of that, it is very much kind of revenue efficiency and cost efficiency. We added 100 basis points in '24 from 15.5% to 16.5%. Then in '25, 16.5% to 17.5%, and now you see us moving through 2026, close to 18% with a number of tailwinds to that ROE and a few headwinds, but a number of tailwinds, like the cost efficiencies from the articulation that we had in Investor Day of our AI benefits of $1 billion after cost are just starting to kick in now. So we're driving an 18% ROE on a 13.5% CET1 ratio, still waiting for those benefits to really kick in on the revenue side and the cost side. And you will see us continue to -- I'm sure we'll talk more