So in the US, we had said recall last quarter that we expect quarter-over-quarter loan growth to stabilize or loan loss — sorry, loan reduction to stabilize and then positive into 2024. We were 1% down quarter-over-quarter in the US, but if you look at [as that] (ph) balances from June to October, we were actually up 1%, which is exactly what we had expected and wanted, and with solid momentum going into 2024 in the pipelines. Canada, as we had expected, did come down in loan growth numbers, but again, it’s as we had said in the last call. And looking into 2024, we’re seeing M&A activity starting to come back, pipelines are starting to improve, and so we continue to believe that we’ll have mid-single-digit growth both in Canada and the US, and if I was a betting person, probably slightly higher growth in the US.
Ebrahim Poonawala: Understood. And maybe a follow-up maybe for Tayfun or Darryl. Just strategically, when we think about the balance sheet, are we in optimization mode, like we’ve done some small business exits or portfolio exits recently. So maybe talk about is there more to do? And just thought process around optimizing capital and the balance sheet and where we are playing offense in terms of taking market share given the pullback, especially with the US regional banks. Thank you.
Tayfun Tuzun: Yeah. In terms of capital allocation, Ebrahim, we’re always on an on mode, right? So we have to constantly review our balance sheet and make sure that allocation of capital to businesses is taking place for the best interest of our shareholders. So we’ll continue to do that. We’ve done a very good job, I think, over the past couple of years in ensuring that we are allocating capital to its best use. In terms of market share gains, obviously, that is a strong point for us. And with the addition of Bank of the West and expanded footprint and a larger customer base, we do see significant opportunities. And the other point that I would make is we closed the quarter at 12.5%, a very strong capital position. We have a pretty modest impact in Q1 of the cumulative impact of the regulatory changes as well as the $300 million FDIC charge.
So we feel good about our capacity for growth and we will continue to look for opportunities to allocate capital to its best use on our balance sheet.
Darryl White: Yeah. Ebrahim, it’s Darryl. I’ll just pile on. I can’t help myself on the last part of your question on whether this puts us in a position to be a share taker. If you go back to before we grew the bank in the US, that was always our objective, particularly in some of our wholesale businesses, and we did that pretty successfully relative to a competitive set that we judged to be pretty good, but in some cases, a little bit weaker than us. Now you roll forward with the integration of our business, the balance sheet that we have in the US, $435 billion, the presence in 32 states, the digital bank across the entire nation. And there’s really no other way to say this, we didn’t do this transaction to not take share.
We were good at it before, and we’ll be even better at it afterwards. We’re a top 10 bank, and the objective is to continue to take share, particularly markets become more constructive, which has been our power alley in the past as well. And we’ve got the balance sheet to do it because at 12.5 — the competitors that you know them very well, the competitors that we will be looking to take share from don’t have that capital ratio.
Ebrahim Poonawala: That’s helpful. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Our following question is from Gabriel Dechaine from National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.
Gabriel Dechaine: Hi. Good morning. I’d like to follow on with that line of questioning, sort of, and Ebrahim touched upon the portfolio exits, I believe, and none of this has been confirmed by the bank, I don’t think, but sounds like you’re getting out of auto lending and indirect auto lending in Canada and the US, and maybe the RV marine lending business in the US. Just wondering what do you have to say about that scuttlebutt, and then if there is some legitimacy to that stuff. Is there a financial impact that we should be flagging, earnings in particular?
Tayfun Tuzun: Yeah. So we don’t comment on scuttlebutts and rumors, Gabe, as you can appreciate, we — and I’ll turn it over shortly to Ernie with her comments about the indirect auto loan business. We like the RV business. We have a large-scale operation in the US with the number three market share that Bank of the West brought to us. It’s a good business, and we have very good relationships with our dealers. We are not getting out of that business no matter what scuttlebutt may say. So I’ll leave it there and then I’ll turn it over to Ernie for the indirect auto piece.
Ernie Johannson: Yeah. Thanks. On the indirect auto piece, we’re winding down that portfolio. So as you can imagine, the impact over the next few years will be marginal in each year, and you can typically see an indirect auto book roll in about three years or so. So that’ll be the end of it. I really want to reiterate Tayfun’s point around our marine RV business in the US is a 30-year business that has a number three market share. It was attractive to us as we went into the Bank of the West Side arrangement and we’re committed to the ongoing originations of that program and are seeing a good success as we speak right now.
Gabriel Dechaine: All right. Thanks for that clarity there. I was a bit surprised with that particular one because you sounded like you liked it. So clearing that up helps. And then on the capital front, the consolidated picture, clearly you’re in a good position, and — but if I look at the call report, your US subsidiary data, and I you know exclude the AOC opt-out, it looks a little bit you know lower relative to you know where you probably want to be. I’m just wondering if you’re entertaining, doing something along the lines of what one of your peers did as far as recapitalizing the US business. I know that picture doesn’t give the full one of their US operations, so maybe there is a missing link there. But what are your thoughts on that positioning?
Tayfun Tuzun: So the answer to your question, is it unqualified, no. We actually feel pretty good about our capital position in the US. I think we are at 11.5% at the bank level and a little bit below that at the holding company level. And it’s a number that actually is going to continue to accrete at a fast pace. And even with the AOCI, I think we feel pretty good about it. We are not planning to do anything in the US that is similar to what some of our peer group banks had to do.
