National Bank of Canada (NA) Q4 2025 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning and welcome to National Bank of Canada's fourth quarter results conference call. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Marianne Ruddy, Senior Vice President and Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Marianne. Merci. Welcome, everyone. We'll begin the call with remarks from Laurent Ferreira, President and CEO, Marie-Chantal Gingras, CFO, and Jean-Sébastien Cizé, Chief Risk Officer. Our business heads are also present for the Q&A session, including Lucie Blanchet, Personal Banking, Judith Menard, Commercial and Private Banking, Michael Denham, CWB Integrations, Nancy Paquette, Wealth Management, Etienne Dubuc, Capital Markets, and Bill Bonner, International. Before we begin, please refer to slide 2 of our presentation for forward-looking statements and non-gap measures. Management will refer to adjusted results unless otherwise noted. I will now pass the call to Laurent. Merci, Marianne, and thank you, everyone, for joining us. This morning, we reported earnings per share of $2.82 for the fourth quarter of 2025 and $11.28 for the year. We delivered strong financial performance in 2025 while also completing the largest acquisition in our history. we met all of our medium-term financial objectives, generating return on equity of 15.3%, EPS growth of 9%, and a dividend payout ratio of 40.7%, supporting a 7% increase in our common share dividend in 2025. This was backed by resilient credit performance and strong capital levels amid a complex macro backdrop. The geopolitical and geoeconomic situation that has defined 2025 will continue to shape business confidence and investments in 2026. Trade tensions with the U.S. are affecting all provinces, causing job losses in certain sectors and a slowdown in the labor market. Meanwhile, inflation is provi...