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Primary Credit Analyst: Lidia Parfeniuk, Toronto (1) 416-507-2517; lidia.parfeniuk@standardandpoors.com Secondary Contacts: Tom G Connell, Toronto (1) 416-507-2501; thomas.connell@standardandpoors.com Michael Leizerovich, Toronto (1) 416-507-2510; michael.leizerovich@standardandpoors.com Robert Palombi, Toronto (1) 416-507-2529; robert.palombi@standardandpoors.com Nikola G Swann, CFA, FRM, Toronto (1) 416-507-2582; nikola.swann@standardandpoors.com
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Rating Outlooks Are Stable, But Some Key Risks Warrant Surveillance Economic Outlook: Canada's Economic Recovery Is Likely To Keep Sputtering Canadian Banks Should Remain On Track For Moderate Growth Through 2016 Buildup In Consumer Debt And House Prices Pose Risks, But Country-Specific Factors Mitigate Them, And We Expect Them To Moderate This Year Regulatory Changes Are Another Factor Constraining Earnings Growth Canadian Banks Can Manage Moderately Higher Loan Losses Notes Related Criteria And Research
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Canada Banking Outlook 2014: The Challenge Is To Find Growth Opportunities While Preserving Asset Quality
Canadian banks are likely to face ongoing economic headwinds, intense competition, and limited revenue growth this year while adapting to more restrictive banking regulations. In Standard & Poor's Ratings Services' view, these factors will keep a lid on earnings growth and make it all the more crucial for banks to maintain effective competitive operations to preserve their credit profiles. Our current Canadian bank rating outlooks are stable (with the exception of HSBC Canada, which has a negative outlook), reflecting strong profitability and low loan losses. However, Canadian consumers' high average debt levels contribute to the potential for a decline in banks' operating performance, should a recession return. We will also consider, as the regulatory environment evolves, the rating implications of any bail-in policy features the Canadian government introduces, which we expect to be subject to a consultative process and phase-in period to avoid destabilizing bank funding markets. We remain watchful of banks' exposures to consumer credit; however, we recognize that recent policy measures appear to be slowing the build-up of mortgage-sector risk, in particular (the federal government holds a portion of these risks through mortgage insurance arrangements), which is likely to keep consumer loan growth at a moderate level as seen in 2013, in our view. Although losses on banks' uninsured mortgages and unsecured consumer loan portfolios have remained low, they may rise in the event of a substantial drop in household creditworthiness. We believe that Canadian financial institutions' risk tolerances are increasing to compensate for lower profitability by searching for yield through more aggressive lending in higher risk categories such as credit cards, auto financing, and leveraged lending, and receptivity to growth through acquisitions. Although we expect Canadian banks to maintain their generally sound asset quality metrics, higher provisions for loan losses have the potential to modestly hinder earnings growth. We believe that net interest margins (NIMs) of banks' personal and commercial businesses will stabilize with support from rising interest rates in 2014 or 2015 though limiting margin expansion through sustained price competition among the large banks. We expect banks to continue to focus on increasing their core customer deposit bases to amass cheap funding and strengthen their liquidity. Despite slower earnings growth, we expect that Canadian banks' capital positions will strengthen incrementally over the next year. Overview High Canadian consumer debt levels and the possibility of global economic deterioration remain credit concerns for Canadian banks. Banks are also facing more intense competition and continued regulatory changes. Nevertheless, we believe the Canadian banks are well positioned, given their current level and stability of earnings, to handle moderate loan losses, and thus our outlook for the Canadian banking sector remains stable.
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Canada Banking Outlook 2014: The Challenge Is To Find Growth Opportunities While Preserving Asset Quality
Rating Outlooks Are Stable, But Some Key Risks Warrant Surveillance
Our rating outlooks across the Canadian banking industry are stable. Earnings growth has clearly slowed over the past two years for the large Canadian banks, though profitability is still strong. We expect this general trend to continue over the next couple of years, reflecting modest revenue growth and slightly higher provisions for loan losses. We also expect banks to effectively manage costs, including through further staff reductions, which would partially offset slower revenue growth in 2014. However, should acquisition flow increase, expenses could become harder to control. We believe the banks will manage their risk exposures to produce a modest increase in risk-weighted assets (RWA) in 2014, and their risk-adjusted capital (RAC) ratios (as Standard & Poor's defines them) will strengthen based on strong, albeit moderating, internal capital generation. Should heightened industry and economic risks lead to a significant drop in revenues and earnings and a substantial increase in loan losses (notably above historical levels), we could lower individual bank ratings where warranted. Although we don't anticipate any upgrades in the near term, we would consider raising individual ratings if a bank's performance supported it. We believe the following risks have the highest potential to be sources of credit stress in the Canadian banking industry and could trigger changes to our ratings on specific Canadian financial institutions.
Intense competition
We expect that continued moderate pressure on margins and subdued loan growth will define the competitive environment in 2014. Individual banks' outcomes will differ depending on the potential trade-off between risk discipline and appetite for revenue or market share growth, as well as the banks' abilities to manage expenses, expand client relationships, or identify new growth opportunities. Banks that successfully compete on nonprice dimensions, such as operational effectiveness, customer service, and branding, may be able to mitigate some of the effects of tighter competition. Banks may also develop a heartier appetite for acquisitions to boost earnings, leading to integration risks and the potential for limited capital growth.
Regulatory changes
Since the beginning of 2013, Canadian banks have been operating under core elements of the Basel III capital framework and adapting to revised rules governing mortgage underwriting and insurance, covered bonds, and derivatives clearing. Regulatory changes, largely driven by Basel III, but as adopted and implemented by the Canadian government and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) will have further implications for capital management, leverage, funding, and liquidity. Banks (and investors) must adapt to revised rules on the ability of capital instruments to absorb losses, capital surcharges for systemically important banks, and the likely establishment
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Canada Banking Outlook 2014: The Challenge Is To Find Growth Opportunities While Preserving Asset Quality
of broader "bail-in" provisions (explicit mechanisms to impose losses on providers of bank financing in an extreme stress scenario) as an element of the resolution framework. In general, we anticipate that evolving regulations will have an incrementally positive impact on the Canadian financial system's stability over time. However, in our view, regulatory changes in aggregate will add to margin pressures while limiting banks' growth potential in certain areas, such as retail lending and trading activities.
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Canada Banking Outlook 2014: The Challenge Is To Find Growth Opportunities While Preserving Asset Quality
Canadian Banks Should Remain On Track For Moderate Growth Through 2016
Despite relatively weak economic growth over the past several years, along with stiffer competition, persistently low interest rates, elevated consumer debt, and enhanced regulatory bank oversight, we expect the Canadian banking sector to remain resilient and on track for moderate revenue growth over the next couple of years. We anticipate asset growth in the mid-single-digits through 2016, reflecting our expectation for modest organic growth in domestic retail loans, slightly more buoyant increases in commercial loans, and the impact of targeted acquisitions. We also expect overall loan growth to remain in the mid- to high-single-digit percentages in 2014, as Canadian consumers' appetite for leverage moderates in the face of continued economic uncertainty and expectations of rising interest rates. As a result, we believe that tougher competition for loan growth could prompt some banks to incrementally raise their risk tolerances. In our view, there is potential for modest acceleration in loan growth through 2016 propelled by strengthening Canadian economic performance. Net interest margins declined for the past few years, but we believe that they will stabilize in 2014 and then expand modestly in 2015 and 2016. We believe that banks' nonperforming loan levels could rise somewhat, contributing to a slightly riskier overall loan mix following continuing loan growth in recent years. As such, our current assumption that loan loss provisions will increase by about 8% in 2014, and by approximately 7% in both 2015 and 2016 captures our expectation of modest asset quality pressure.
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Canada Banking Outlook 2014: The Challenge Is To Find Growth Opportunities While Preserving Asset Quality
Chart 1
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Canada Banking Outlook 2014: The Challenge Is To Find Growth Opportunities While Preserving Asset Quality
Chart 2
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Canada Banking Outlook 2014: The Challenge Is To Find Growth Opportunities While Preserving Asset Quality
Chart 3
Buildup In Consumer Debt And House Prices Pose Risks, But Country-Specific Factors Mitigate Them, And We Expect Them To Moderate This Year
In our opinion, high Canadian consumer leverage in general, and housing debt in particular, coupled with a run-up in some measures of house prices are key risks to the Canadian banking system. In fact, they are the main reason for our negative trend on economic risks within the context of our Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment (BICRA) on Canada (published Jan. 27, 2014). In our opinion, the continual rise in Canadian consumer leverage since the early 1990s, which the increasing household debt to disposable income ratio illustrates (see chart 4), could amplify the impact of any negative shock to consumers' credit quality on banks, as consumer-sector exposure accounts for nearly three-fifths of Canadian bank loans. In addition, some home price measures -- for example, the ratio of house prices to disposable income, which is currently at about 5x and has risen substantially and steadily during the past 10 years --suggest increases in the likelihood and the degree of a potential correction. We expect a mild correction to begin in 2014, with a 2% decline in house prices this year. We do not expect such a decline to exceed 10% this year, even in a reasonable macroeconomic downside scenario (see BICRA).
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Canada Banking Outlook 2014: The Challenge Is To Find Growth Opportunities While Preserving Asset Quality
Chart 4
On the other hand, we believe the situation is more nuanced than a few commonly referenced metrics might imply; there are several factors that continue to distinguish the risks to Canadian mortgage finance from those of peer countries, and the U.S., in particular.
Relatively few mortgages are in arrears, and borrower performance has been very strong for more than a decade
First, Canadian mortgage borrowers have a very strong track record of credit performance and credit characteristics. Residential mortgages in arrears remain a very small proportion (less than 0.5%) of the total outstanding, as has been the case in each of the past 15 years, including during the global financial crisis (GFC; see chart 5). This distinguishes Canadian mortgage borrowers from those in many countries, particularly the U.S., where arrears reached almost 10% during the GFC. Although we believe low and stable interest rates in recent years helped keep arrears low, in addition, Canadian financial institutions have extended consumer credit overwhelmingly to those borrowers most able to handle it, according to the national credit-scoring system (see chart 6). The share of non-prime mortgage borrowers in Canada remains relatively small, at about 7% compared with the pre-crisis level of about 20% in the U.S. Moreover, lacking some of the systemic incentives that tend to encourage U.S. borrowers to incur and maintain larger mortgage balances (in Canada mortgage payments are not tax-deductible, the rate on fixed-rate mortgages generally resets in five years at most, and almost all mortgages are full-recourse), Canadian homeowners tend to pay down mortgage debt more
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Canada Banking Outlook 2014: The Challenge Is To Find Growth Opportunities While Preserving Asset Quality
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Canada Banking Outlook 2014: The Challenge Is To Find Growth Opportunities While Preserving Asset Quality
Chart 6
Federal regulations constrain mortgage lending, and have been gradually tightening
Another important distinction of the Canadian mortgage market is the set of governmental arrangements regarding mortgage insurance. Canadian law requires all federally regulated lenders (almost all the significant banks) to purchase third-party mortgage insurance on high-ratio mortgage loans (those with loan-to-value ratios exceeding 80%). This insurance may only be purchased from CMHC or one of the government-approved private-sector mortgage insurers. Such mortgage insurance benefits from a goverment guarantee that we believe is credible, both because it is explicitly and clearly stated in law and because we believe the Canadian sovereign has sufficient balance-sheet capacity to absorb the related costs in a reasonable downside scenario without compromising its own credit quality (see full analysis on Canada published Nov. 26, 2013). Moreover, in light of our expectation that a downside-scenario house price decline will not exceed 10% in 2014, only an estimated 4% of Canadian homeowners have homeowners' equity positions of less than 10%, according to data from the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals (as of spring 2013). Furthermore, since at least the start of the GFC, we believe Canadian federal authorities have focused on the increasing risks from consumer leverage and housing markets, leading them to gradually tighten macroprudential policy levers several times since 2008 (see Notes). We believe these eligibility-tightening policy measures may have already slowed the rise in consumer leverage and house prices and are increasingly likely to, as the new rules influence
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Canada Banking Outlook 2014: The Challenge Is To Find Growth Opportunities While Preserving Asset Quality
a larger share of mortgages, with time (the new rules apply only to new loans). We expect household demand (including for housing) will remain lukewarm this year. Given the time lags in policy initiatives and our expectation that monetary policy will remain highly accommodative in 2014, we expect nominal growth in residential mortgages outstanding to decelerate to 2%-4% in 2014 (from 10% in the mid-2000s) and aggregate loan growth to moderate slightly, to about 5%-6% in 2014 (from about 7% in 2012 and 2013). Although we expect house prices to decline during 2014, continuing the sporadic pattern of 2013, the cumulative buildup in broad housing price indicators and affordability is still a significant risk. However, if a housing market correction does occur, the support Canadian banks receive from government-backed mortgage insurance could partly offset the impact. Currently, we expect total credit losses (including retail, commercial, and corporate) of about 34 bps in 2014, compared with 31 bps in 2013, which is generally in line with the rates in some peer countries (such as Australia) but higher than in others (such as Sweden).
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Canada Banking Outlook 2014: The Challenge Is To Find Growth Opportunities While Preserving Asset Quality
Notes
Between 2008 and 2012, the government tightened the minimum underwriting standards to qualify for mortgage insurance on a newly originated high-ratio loan (which is necessary to issue such a loan) in four progressive steps. Current rules include the following adjustments:
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Canada Banking Outlook 2014: The Challenge Is To Find Growth Opportunities While Preserving Asset Quality A reduction in the maximum loan-to-value to 95% (from a peak of 100%); A reduction in the maximum amortization period to 25 years (from a peak of 40); The elimination of high-ratio loans for refinancings and non-owner-occupied properties (such loans could be made up to 95% of value, at their peak); The establishment of maximum ratios for both the "gross debt-service ratio" (numerator including property taxes and heating costs, in addition to mortgage payments) and the "total debt-service ratio" (numerator including items in the first ratio plus all other debt service), at 39% and 44% of income, respectively; and Tightening of the required credit score and documentation standards for borrower income and property valuation.
Related Research
Canada, Nov. 26, 2013 Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment: Canada, Jan. 27, 2014 Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Jan. 30, 2014
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