The Bank of Nova Scotia

and I'm Head of Investor Relations here at Scotiabank. Presenting to you this morning are Scott Thompson, Scotiabank's President and Chief Executive Officer, Raj Viswanathan, our Chief Financial Officer, and Phil Thomas, our Chief Risk Officer. Following our comments, we'll be glad to take your questions. Also present to take questions are the following Scotiabank executives, Eris Bogdaneris from Canadian Banking, Jackie Allard from Global Wealth Management, Francisco Arricieda from International Banking, and Travis Machin from Global Banking and Markets. Before we start, and on behalf of those speaking today, I'll refer you to slide two of our presentation, which contains Scotiabank's caution regarding forward-looking statements. With that, I will now turn the call over to Scott.

Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. We are pleased to share our Q2 results, which reflect solid earnings from each of our four business lines. This is our second quarter since we shared our enterprise-wide strategy, and I'm encouraged by our continued progress against our plan. I want to take a few moments to recap a few key enterprise initiatives. First, discipline capital allocation to higher return client segments and geographies, as virtually all of our incremental capital deployed in fiscal 2024 has been to our identified priority businesses. Second, deposit growth remains fundamental to our business prioritization and client selection decisions. Our focus on building primacy through deeper relationships has resulted in continued growth with P&C deposits up 7% year to date. Third, cost and process efficiencies, which both drive profitability and ensure frontline teams have the tools and capacity to deliver an excellent client experience. Well-managed expenses and productivity gains are driving positive year-to-date operating leverage. And finally, a strong balance sheet, which will allow us to support clients through the cycle while maintaining optionality to invest in our businesses, as evidenced by strong liquidity and our 13.2% SETI-1 capital ratio. In terms of results, the bank reported adjusted earnings of $2.1 billion, or $1.58 per share, in the quarter. We saw solid revenue growth from both net interest income and fee income, coupled with disciplined expense management. The benefits of our productivity initiatives were particularly notable in our Canadian and international banking segments, where productivity ratios improved 100 basis points and well over 200 basis points, respectively, over last year. Higher credit provisions reflecting the uncertain macroeconomic environment and the impact of sustained higher interest rates on certain client segments impacted profitability. Overall, net loans were 3% lower year over year and in line with Q1. Balances have stabilized in the Canadian residential mortgage portfolio, while we have seen moderate growth in other personal and commercial portfolios. We continue to reposition our business banking portfolios with a view to optimize risk-weighted assets and profitability by client. And importantly, return on risk-weighted asset metrics are trending positively on a year-to-date basis. The all-bank loan-to-deposit ratio continues to improve as a result of $26 billion of deposit growth over the past year, driven largely from focused efforts in our Canadian and international banking retail franchises. Deposit growth has now outpaced loan growth in Canadian and international banking in each of the past five quarters. The bank's wholesale funding has been reduced by $34 billion year-over-year, resulting in a wholesale funding ratio below 20%, down from approximately 23% in Q2 of 2023. Turning to the credit environment, the impact of higher rates is increasingly weighing on consumers and, to a lesser extent, our commercial and small business clients. Although we believe the monetary tightening phase of the rate cycle in Canada is now complete, our prior expectation for multiple rate cuts in the back half of the calendar year feels less certain. The reality of a higher for longer rate scenario will naturally result in the continuation of elevated credit provision in our retail portfolios, keeping us at the higher end of our 2024 PCL outlook of 55 basis points. Our commercial banking and global banking and markets portfolios remain stable from a credit quality perspective, although a continuation of the current rate outlook will weigh on economic activity and industry loan growth. In our key Latin American markets, we are now into the easing phase of the interest rate cycle. Central bank policy rates in Chile at 6% and Peru at 5.75% are down significantly from peak levels last year, as inflation has been successfully managed lower. Mexico's central bank has started to ease policy rates as aggressive tightening over the past two years has effectively lowered inflation and managed near-term GDP growth expectations to more sustainable levels. The Mexican economy continues to demonstrate resilient growth and a tight employment market despite the impact of double-digit interest rates for the past 12 months. Our forecasts do not anticipate recessionary conditions in any of our key operating geographies over the next few years. We are well positioned to execute on our new international banking strategy in what we expect to be a more normalized economic growth environment throughout the region going forward. A few highlights in terms of performance and strategic progress within each of our business lines. Our Canadian banking business contributed approximately $1 billion of earnings in the period. Favorable business mix shift, asset repricing, and deposit growth delivered solid margin expansion and resulting revenue growth in a period where overall loans were marginally lower year over year. With continued focus on process and efficiency, expense growth was moderate this quarter, resulting in a positive year-to-date operating leverage of 3.1%. Our focus on relationships and more deliberate new client selection is driving an increase in the percentage of clients that we consider to be primary. Our retail bank has added over 95,000 net new primary clients year-to-date and, importantly, saw the lowest client attrition in three years as a result of more selective client acquisition and cross-sell initiatives. We are closely tracking client relationship depth and have seen meaningful progress, with over 45% of all retail clients currently holding 3-plus products in the Canadian bank, a 230 basis point increase from a year ago. Our ScenePlus loyalty program continues to drive deeper client relationships, with 32% of new clients holding more than three products after one month with the bank. These higher-value ScenePlus clients now represent over half of the new-to-bank clients across day-to-day banking and credit cards, up from 40% last year. At Tangerine, we continue to add new clients and see lower attrition rates with existing clients. Year to date, we're tracking well ahead of plan to add new clients in fiscal 2024. Importantly, primary client growth at Tangerine is up 15% year to date, with 35% of all clients now having three or more products with Tangerine. Tangerine continues to set the industry pace in terms of mobile penetration, with 64% of new client signups happening exclusively through the mobile channel, up 11% year to date versus last year. Our commercial banking business saw a continued moderation of loan growth, up 5% against double-digit deposit growth. Ongoing efforts on client selection and capital optimization contributed to a continued improvement in return on risk-weighted assets this quarter. We continue to believe there is material share gain and profitability growth potential in our domestic retail and commercial bank, which we expect to deliver at least half of the bank's earnings growth over the medium term. Global wealth earnings of $387 million reflect strong performance from our asset management franchise, our integrated multi-channel advisory business, and continued outsized growth from our international wealth unit. Favorable returns in most global equity benchmarks and strong relative performance from our 1832 fund lineup resulted in solid AUM growth in the quarter and supports continued flows into long-term investment products as the year progresses. Assets under management in our international wealth business grew over 15% in the quarter through a combination of strong investment performance and over $1 billion of net sales in the period. Our Canadian wealth management advisory businesses, Scotia McLeod, MD Financial, and our private investment council business are having great success delivering our fully integrated total wealth offerings to clients. We have increased the number of financial plans delivered this quarter by 27% year-to-date, and we continue to add product specialists to deliver comprehensive solutions for clients. Clients with a financial plan are better prepared for their future, are a significant driver of net promoter score, and twice as likely to have a multi-product relationship with the bank. We continue to see progress in strengthening the partnership between our wealth and Canadian retail channels, with referrals up 15% year-over-year. In our global banking and markets business, we reported resilient earnings of $428 million this quarter, despite headwinds in the Canadian capital markets franchise, that were largely offset by strong performance in our U.S. business. The business continues to reposition the portfolio with a view to achieving better balance in our loan-to-deposit growth, as well as align with our strategic geographic priorities and client return objectives. Deposits were lower by 2% in the quarter, while overall loan volumes were down 6%, due to lower new origination activity, paydowns, and additional delivered actions to strategically reposition the portfolio. We were encouraged by GBM's performance in terms of growth and underwriting and advisory fee revenue in the quarter, an indication of more effective client selection and product coverage in our GBM business. We are also pleased to welcome Travis Machin to our leadership team as our new group head of global banking and markets. Travis brings a career of U.S.-focused corporate investment banking experience with best-in-class global banks. In our international banking business, we delivered strong results this quarter with a net earnings contribution of $677 million, resulting in a year-to-date return on equity of 15%, up from 13.3% in the period last year. Solid revenue growth was driven by continued margin expansion in most geographies, coupled with impressive expense discipline, resulting in a significant improvement in the segment's productivity ratio to 51.1%. Our capital repositioning continued in the period as risk-weighted assets in the business were lower by $2 billion, while deposits were up 3% sequentially and 6% on a year-over-year basis. Our GBM LATAM contribution moderated to $290 million in the quarter, down from an exceptional $372 million contribution in Q1. We are encouraged by the improved performance and profitability of the business as we look to drive even greater productivity through a more regional, standardized operating model. In international retail, we have a significant client segmentation initiative underway to grow primary clients more selectively in the affluent, emerging affluent, and top of mass segments. While we expect this franchise repositioning, including client deselection, to be an ongoing process, we saw good progress on priority net client growth in the quarter. We continue to believe we have sufficient scale and capital deployed in our international banking business to profitably grow our retail businesses and capitalize on wholesale opportunities when favorable market conditions and client activity allow, as evidenced by solid results again this quarter. In summary, the bank delivered solid financial and set us up for more balanced, resilient growth over the long term. I would like to thank our team of Scotiabankers globally who are delivering on our ambitious plan. As I continue to meet with our teams, it is clear our people understand the important role they play in driving the sustainable, profitable growth we've committed to delivering for our shareholders. With that, I will turn it over to Raj for a more detailed financial review of the quarter.

Thank you, Scott, and good morning, everyone. All my comments that follow will be on an adjusted basis for the usual acquisition-related costs. Starting on slide six for a review of the second quarter results, the bank reported quarterly earnings of $2.1 billion and diluted earnings per share of $1.58. Return on equity was 11.3 percent and return on tangible common equity was 13.8 percent. Revenues were up 5 percent year-over-year driven by 5% growth in net interest income, and also by net interest margin expansion and 6% growth in non-interest income. All bank net interest margin expanded five basis points year over year. Margin was down two basis points quarter over quarter, driven mainly by a lower contribution from asset and liability management activities. Non-interest income was $3.7 billion, up 6% year over year, primarily from higher wealth management revenues, underwriting and advisory, commitment and credit fees, partly offset by lower acceptance fees. The provision for credit losses were $1 billion, and the PCL ratio was 54 basis points, up four basis points quarter over quarter. Expenses grew a modest 3 percent year-over-year, driven by higher technology-related costs, personal costs from inflationary adjustments, and higher performance-based compensation. partly offset by lower share-based compensation and the benefits of the efficiency initiatives. Quarter-over-quarter expenses were down 1%, driven by seasonally higher share-based compensation in the last quarter. The productivity ratio was 56.2% this quarter, and year-to-date operating leverage was a positive 1%. Moving to slide 7, which shows the evolution of the common equity tier 1 ratio, and risk-weighted assets during the quarter. The bank's CET1 capital ratio was 13.2%, an increase of 30 basis points quarter-over-quarter and 90 basis points year-over-year, primarily benefiting from RWA optimization efforts. Total risk-weighted assets was $450.2 billion, marginally down from $451 billion in the prior quarter. Earnings contributed 14 basis points, and the DRIP program contributed 10 basis points, offset partly by a reduction of five basis points from the revaluation of securities. Lower risk-weighted assets, primarily reflecting the benefits of RWA optimization activities, contributed 15 basis points. The Q1 capital floor add-on of $7.8 billion was eliminated by changes in book quality and LGD model updates, that only impact the model risk-weighted asset numbers. The bank will continue to maintain strong balance sheet metrics as it executes on its strategic initiatives. Turning now to the business line results beginning on slide eight, Canadian banking reported earnings of $1 billion, a decrease of 4% year-over-year, as higher revenues were more than offset by significantly higher PCLs. The business generated another quarter of positive operating leverage, resulting in year-to-date positive operating leverage of 3.1%. Average loans and acceptances were flat quarter over quarter and down about 1% from the prior year. The portfolio mix continues to evolve in line with our strategy as business loans grew 8% year over year, credit card balances grew 18%, and personal loans grew 2%. while residential mortgage balances declined 5 percent. We continue to see deposit growth as year-over-year deposits grew 7 percent and the loan-to-deposit ratio improved to 122 percent from 132 percent last year. Net interest income increased 12 percent year-over-year primarily from solid deposit growth and margin expansion. The net interest margin expanded 26 basis points year-over-year reflecting benefits of asset repricing, business exchanges, and growth in deposits. Margin was stable quarter-to-quarter as asset margin expansion was offset by deposit margin compression. Non-interest income was down 11% year-over-year as the prior year included elevated private equity gains and income from our equity interest in Canadian Tire Financial Services that we divested in October 2023. The PCL ratio was 40 basis points, up six basis points quarter-over-quarter. Expenses increased 4% year-over-year, primarily due to higher technology costs, personal costs, and expenses to support business growth. Quarter-over-quarter expenses grew 1%, primarily from higher pension and benefits and premises costs. Turning now to global wealth management on slide nine. Earnings of $387 million grew 8% year-over-year, driven by higher revenues in Canada, higher mutual fund fees in the international world, partly offset by higher volume-related expenses. Quarter-over-quarter earnings were up 3% primarily due to higher brokerage and mutual fund revenues across Canada and international, partly offset by higher expenses. Revenues of $1.4 billion were up $114 million on 9% year-over-year, driven by higher fee-based revenues, mutual fund fees from strong assets under management growth, and higher net interest income from loan and deposit growth across our Canadian and international businesses. Expenses were up 9% year-over-year due to higher volume-related expenses salesforce expansion, and higher costs to support business growth. Port assets under management increased 6% year-over-year to $349 billion as market appreciation was partly offset by net redemptions. KUA grew 7% over the same period to $669 billion for market appreciation and higher net sales. International wealth management generated earnings of 66 million, up 19% year-over-year, driven by higher mutual fund fees in Mexico and strong deposit growth in Peru. AUA and AUM grew 10% and 15% respectively year-over-year. Turning to slide 10, global banking and markets. Global banking and markets generated earnings of 428 million, up 7% year-over-year, Capital markets revenue was up 5% year-over-year primarily from higher fixed income and global equities revenues, partly offset by lower FX and commodities revenues. Quarter-over-quarter capital markets revenue was down 5% as global equities revenue was down 11%, partly offset by growth in FICC. Business banking revenues declined 8% year-over-year and 4% quarter-over-quarter. primarily due to lower corporate and investment banking revenues as the business continues to optimize capital deployment. Loans and acceptances were down 6% quarter-over-quarter to $115 billion, largely driven by borrowers accessing the debt markets to pay down loans and management's focus on ongoing balance sheet optimization. Net interest income decreased 14% year-over-year, primarily due to lower loan volumes, partly offset by lower trading-related funding costs. Non-interest income was up 2% year-over-year, mainly from higher underwriting and advisory fees, partly offset by lower trading-related revenue from the impact of the proposed denial of dividend-received deduction on certain shareholdings in Canada. Expenses were up 4% year-over-year, due mainly to higher personal costs and technology investments to support business growth. Quarter-to-quarter expenses were down 3%, mainly due to seasonality of share-based compensation, which was higher in the first quarter. The U.S. business generated strong earnings of $271 million, up $97 million, or 55% year-over-year, with strong contributions from both capital markets and corporate and investment banking while managing risk-weighted asset growth. GBM Latin America, which is reported as part of international banking, reported earnings of $290 million, up 5% compared to the prior year, mainly from Mexico. The business also earned through a 7% year-over-year reduction in average assets. Moving to slide 11 for a review of international banking. My comments that follow are on an adjusted and constant dollar basis. The segment delivered earnings of $677 million, down 2% year over year. Revenue was up 6% year over year, as net interest income was up 14%, mainly in Chile and Mexico, partly offset by a decline in non-interest income driven by lower trading revenues. Net interest margin expanded 11 basis points quarter over quarter to 447 basis points, driven by lower cost of funds from rate cuts and higher inflation benefits, mainly in Chile. Year-over-year loans were down 2%, primarily in Brazil and Peru. Total business loans declined 7%, partly offset by 6% growth in residential mortgages. Deposits grew a strong 6% year-over-year, primarily in Mexico, Chile, and Brazil. Total personal deposits grew 2% year-over-year, and non-personal deposits grew 8%. The loan-to-deposit ratio improved to 124% from 138% in the prior year. The provision for credit losses was 138 basis points of $566 million, down $2 million quarter-over-quarter. Expenses were up a modest 3% year-over-year, driven by technology expenses and business and capital taxes, despite a higher inflation environment. Year-to-date operating leverage is a positive 5.5%. Turning to slide 12, the other segment reported an adjusted net loss attributable to equity holders of $421 million, an improvement of $53 million compared to the prior quarter, mainly due to higher non-interest revenues, mostly from mark-to-market benefits from investments and certain derivatives, and lower expenses. I'll now turn the call over to Phil to discuss for us.