BMO, National Bank Suffer Real Estate Hits
Two more Canadian big banks have reported higher provisions for credit losses tied to commercial real estate and other properties.
Bank of Montreal and National Bank issued quarterly reports Friday showing that provisions increased in the hundreds of millions of dollars. BMO attributed its higher PCL partly to a consolidation of its own real estate.
BMO said its total PCL was $446 million (lower than analysts anticipated) compared with a provision of $226 million a year earlier. The bank said its PCL on impaired loans was $408 million, an increase of $216 million from the prior year. The PCL for credit losses on performing loans was $38 million, up from $4 million during the same period in 2022.
National Bank reported $115 million in provisions for credit losses versus $87 million a year earlier.
BMO and National’s higher PCL figures came after TD Bank, CIBC and Scotiabank reported hundreds of millions worth of PCL increases earlier in the week.