Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Lemar Persaud: I appreciate the guidance on the all-bank that’s really helpful. But I’m wondering what’s the appropriate starting point. I’m trying to figure out what the appropriate baseline is to tack on the additional 10 basis points of margin expansion for Q2 related to Bank of the West. Is that the 179 basis points on your Slide 12 for adjusted?

Tayfun Tuzun: Yes. So, I’m going to ask you for one more quarter of patience on this question. because we want to make sure that we have all the final purchase accounting entries because for me to give you a reference point, I do need to know what those adjustments are. So, if you can just give us another quarter here when we get to the end of the second quarter, when we do our earnings call, we will give you a much more detailed perspective on how to reference going forward, what that should be.

Lemar Persaud: Okay. And then I want to go back to the Bank of the West slide, there is the updated accretion estimate, just to be clear, that doesn’t include the additional share issuance in response as DSP announcement, right?

Tayfun Tuzun: Yes. The December issuance, this most recent issuance is not included because that was not related to Bank of the West.

Lemar Persaud: Okay. And then not sure if I heard you correctly in the opening remarks, but I think you mentioned the reduction in the 2024 accretion estimate was due to the delayed closing of Bank of the West. Shouldn’t that be higher because of the delayed closing because they’re a full year at Bank of the West in 2024 versus only three quarters for 2023. What am I missing there?

Tayfun Tuzun: Yes. So since at announcement, when we made the announcement in December of ’21, we assume that the transaction would close 90 days earlier than where it did. So, we are 1 quarter behind in terms of the closing date, which then shifts the capture of all the expense savings, and we get 1 quarter in ’24 where we actually finalize that capture. That’s the only change. It’s a calendar change, basically, nothing else.

Operator: The next question is from Joo Ho Kim from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

Joo Ho Kim: Thanks, and good morning. Just a quick one here. On your domestic residential mortgage growth, we’ve seen some slowdown from your peers, but not so from BMO and the growth was pretty strong this quarter. So just curious whether that — where that growth is coming from, whether that’s from a certain segment of the customer market or geography? And what’s your outlook for growth in that business is going forward?

Erminia Johannson: Yes. Irene, I’ll answer that question. So, you’re absolutely right. Our strategy has been to grow at above market. Over the past, I would say, 12 months, we’ve had acquired a significant increase our sales team, and we’ve been digitizing our mortgage process so that we are a more effective kind of originator of mortgages. That said, we obviously have been benefiting from the fact that you have a pipeline that obviously has a long duration to get through to your balance sheet. And that’s what you’re seeing coming through. Right now, we’re seeing originations down the same amount that the market is down. So, you can anticipate our going forward mortgage balances or growth, I should say, to slow down, what you’re seeing from the market overall.

No differences in terms of segments as we’re focused again on very quality customers, full share of wallet, bring the mortgage in, bring the rest business in, have a primary relationship. So, no change there. But as I said, you’ll see some moderation going into the back half of this year, just as the mortgage market has adjusted.

Operator: The next question is from Nigel D’Souza from Veritas Investment Research. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.