BMO aims to jump-start mortgage arm

The Globe and Mail- Bank of Montreal is planning to kick its mortgage business back into growth mode, after another quarter in which it lost market share to rivals.

BMO reported a first-quarter profit of $657-million yesterday, up from $225-million a year ago, making it the third Canadian bank to consecutively top analysts expectations. Its cash earnings per share came in at $1.13, while the Street had been forecasting profit of about $1.03 per share.

The bulk of BMO’s earnings came from its Canadian lending operations, while profit from its U.S. lending business was 43 per cent lower than a year ago.

"We just had our sixth terrific quarter in a row," Frank Techar, the head of the bank’s Canadian lending arm, said in an interview.

Mr. Techar took over those struggling operations in July 2006, after a period in which the bank’s profits were suffering partially because of a strategy that sought to lure customers with cheap mortgages and high interest rates on savings accounts…

BMO aims to jump-start mortgage arm – The Globe and Mail

TD’s Clark worried about mortgage system

The Globe and Mail- Toronto-Dominion Bank chief executive Ed Clark says he’s worried that regulators could overdo it when it comes to leverage rules and destroy the Canadian mortgage business.

“I do worry that in trying to say there is too much leverage in the wholesale [business] they’ll end up with a leverage rule that actually destroys the Canadian mortgage system, which would be the ultimate of ironies,” the outspoken CEO said at a financial conference hosted by Morgan Stanley in New York Wednesday.

The stability of the Canadian banks’ massive mortgage portfolios helped pull them through the crisis, and lends them some assurance that they’ll make a basic level of profits in the coming year, he suggested.

Rather than directing new rules at banks’ overall leverage ratios, which could damage the huge mortgage portfolios they hold, regulators should focus on leverage levels in the wholesale or capital markets businesses, Mr. Clark suggested…

TD’s Clark worried about mortgage system – The Globe and Mail

Stock markets tumble on recession reminders

 Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa, Ont – “In recent sessions, signs had appeared suggesting that bullish interest in equities and the two-month rally was tiring and that some investors were starting to take profits,” said Colin Cieszynski, market analyst at CMC Markets Canada in Toronto. “Today, it appears that bearish selling pressure, which had first appeared as upside resistance, may be increasing, along with concerns that although it appears the worst of the economic declines may be behind us, the road to recovery may yet be long and arduous.”…

Stock markets tumble on recession reminders

ING Canada’s 2008 profits drop 75%

 Toronto Star – Ontario, Canada – It also said the Dutch government will take ownership of most of about US$35.8 billion worth of troubled US mortgage-backed securities. …

TheStar.com | Business | ING Canada’s 2008 profits drop 75%