Toronto-Dominion CEO Plans on Caution Amid a ‘Bumpy’ Recovery
(Bloomberg) -- Toronto-Dominion Bank Chief Executive Officer Bharat Masrani said that while he sees encouraging trends in the economy, the emergence of the omicron variant shows that it's too early to call an all-clear on the pandemic.
“With respect to the economy, I don't want to be declaring victory prematurely,” Masrani said in a BNN Bloomberg Television interview Monday. “The pandemic is not behind us.”
Toronto-Dominion last week reported fiscal fourth-quarter profit that topped analysts' estimates, increased its dividend 13% and announced a plan to buy back 50 million shares, which would cost about C$4.7 billion ($3.7 billion) at current prices.
Even amid the increased payouts, Masrani said the bank wants to keep enough capital on hand to maintain the flexibility to invest in its business and potentially make acquisitions. While Masrani said he expects 2022 to be a year of normalization and reopening, the bank prefers to be conservative and believes it would be premature to release too much of the capital stockpiled to protect against potential loan losses, he said.
“We are very sensitive to what might happen here, and it's going to be bumpy for a while until we're out of this pandemic,” Masrani said.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
-
Joining The Dots | Dark Skies, Steady Diya: Why Hope Holds This Diwali
With war, a weak rupee and foreign outflows weighing on sentiment, policymakers at the NDTV World Summit and market veterans at NDTV Profit Ignite: Diwali Edition offered the same advice: stay invested and filter out the noise.
-
The Curious Case of Equitas Small Finance Bank And A CEO Who Quit For Stock
PN Vasudevan believes persistent investor concerns over a perceived conflict of interest had become a governance overhang on Equitas Small Finance Bank's stock, even as the lender improved profitability and asset quality.
