Good morning, and welcome to the BMO Financial Group's Q2 2021 earnings release and conference call for May 26, 2021. Your host for today is Ms. Christine Viau, Head of Investor Relations. Ms. Viau, please go ahead. Thank you, and good morning. Welcome to BMO's Q2 2021 results presentation. We will begin the call with remarks from Darryl White, BMO's CEO, followed by Tayfun Tuzun, our Chief Financial Officer, and Pat Cronin, our Chief Risk Officer. Also present to take questions today are Erminia Johannson from Canadian P&C, David Casper from U.S. P&C, Dan Barclay from BMO Capital Markets, and Joanna Rotenberg from BMO Wealth Management. As noted on Slide two, forward-looking statements may be made during this call, which involve assumptions that have inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from these statements. I would also remind listeners that the bank uses non-GAAP financial measures to arrive at adjusted results. Management measures performance on a reported and adjusted basis and considers both to be useful in assessing underlying business performance. Darryl and Tayfun will be referring to adjusted results in their remarks, unless otherwise noted as reported. With that, I will turn the call over to Darryl. Thank you, Christine, and good morning, everyone. It has been over a year since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, which has brought challenges unlike any we've faced before, and that will have impacts for some time to come. As we transition to recovery, there are more hopeful signs every day. We're proud to have supported our customers and communities as they navigate the disruption and uncertainty of the pandemic, and with them, we have grown stronger, underpinned by our purpose-driven strategy and a culture that will help drive a sustainable and inclusive recovery. We continue to deliver on our commitments with sustained, consistent financial performance. Today, we announced another quarter of very strong results, with adjusted net income of CAD 2.1 billion and earnings per share of CAD 3.13, up from CAD 3.06 last quarter. Each of our operating groups continues to perform very well, with continued strength in our market-sensitive businesses, as well as good growth in our P&C businesses, despite record low interest rates. For the first half of the year, adjusted pre-provision pre-tax earnings of CAD 5.5 billion increased 27%. Revenue grew 11%, and expenses continued to be well managed, up 1% year to date, with strong overall operating leverage of 9.8%. Our credit quality remains very strong, with low impaired provisions again this quarter, and a modest recovery of performing loan provisions, reflecting both the resilience of our customers and our differentiated approach to risk management. Our return on equity increased again this quarter to 16.7%, above our midterm target, while our capital position continues to strengthen with a CET1 ratio of 13%. We're on a continuous path to building a strong and even more competitive bank, digitally enabled, future-ready, with leading efficiency improvement, customer loyalty and profitability, and a steadfast commitment to the communities we serve. Our progress is evident in our financial performance, which confirms the effectiveness of our strategy and ability to support millions of clients in new ways. Compared to the Q1 of 2020, efficiency has continued to improve, down 370 basis points to 56.6%, reflecting our commitments to managing expenses while investing for future revenue growth. We're committed to continue to improve efficiency over time, even when expense growth reflects our strong revenue performance. We continue to outperform on credit. We have $2.8 billion of allowances against performing loans well above our base case expectations for future losses. Over the same period, return on equity increased 320 basis points, with each of our businesses achieving higher levels of earnings and ROE. Our capital position has never been stronger, with our CET1 ratio up 160 basis points, positioning us well for growth and the eventual relaxing of constraints on returning capital to shareholders. We're taking actions to optimize capital and resource allocation. You've seen that reflected in a range of recent decisions, such as the sale of our EMEA asset management business, our private banking business in Hong Kong and Singapore, and the wind down of our non-Canadian energy portfolio. These actions further strengthen the earnings power of the bank, and together, they are expected to improve efficiency by approximately 60 basis points, ROE by 30 basis points, and capital by 80 basis points, and they enable reinvestment in our core businesses in North America. We've achieved these results while adapting to the changes and challenges of the last year, and with the economic recovery set to accelerate through this year and 2022, we've never been better positioned to continue to grow with our customers. Substantial fiscal stimulus, pent-up demand, and elevated household savings are expected to strengthen economic activity this year and next. Business confidence is much improved. On Monday, the U.S. National Association for Business Economists matched our forecast, calling for 6.5% U.S. real GDP growth in 2021, the strongest expansion in 37 years. Among consumers this week, the Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index hit its highest point recorded since they started polling in 2008, with Canadian real GDP expected to grow 6% as vaccine rollouts accelerate. Here, we're building capabilities and continuing to invest in our businesses for growth with a digital strategy first. Our bank has been driving digital transformation for more than a decade, and in the last 12 months, the pace has meaningfully accelerated. This quarter, we launched automated digital enrollment, a solution that quickly and seamlessly enrolls customers into a commonly used mobile banking feature, a first for a major Canadian financial institution. We're accelerating our strong digital sales performance, driven by continued deployment of market-leading capabilities and offers, while continuing to shift service transactions to digital, allowing our employees to focus on advice and sales. In our leading treasury payment solutions business, wire payments are now processed on a single North American platform, 95% without human intervention, resulting in improved speed, less risk for error, and a better experience for our customers and our employees. In Wealth Management, we launched AdviceDirect Premium, a new offering designed for our self-directed clients with more complex needs. This hybrid solution combines the strong technology of our digital advice engine with human support and planning when it's needed. These are examples of investments driving strong and resilient performance across our operating groups. Our flagship Canadian P&C business delivered year-to-date revenue growth of 5%, strong operating leverage and PPPT growth of 11%, with ROE improving to 26.8%. Performance was supported by continued strong mortgage growth and a resumption of commercial lending growth. In U.S. P&C, PPPT growth was also strong, up 22% year to date, with revenue growth of 6% and effectively managed expenses. Our efficiency ratio improved to 48.6% and ROE to 16.4%. We're continuing to add clients and deepen relationships with strong growth in commercial deposits and core retail checking balances, with lending expected to accelerate as the economy expands and supply chain issues ease. In BMO Wealth Management, we had a strong PPPT growth of 53% year to date. Revenue grew 14% in traditional wealth, with strong growth in client assets, online broker revenue, and mutual fund revenue, where sales year to date are more than double all of fiscal 2020. These results were complemented by record client loyalty scores in Canadian and U.S. private wealth businesses. We're refocusing the business for North American growth, investing in key areas of competitive strength in private wealth, in digital investing, and Canadian asset management that we expect will continue to contribute strongly to the bank's growth. BMO Capital Markets continues to be a source of diversified earnings to the overall bank and had another very strong quarter, delivering very strong year-to-date PPPT growth of 72% and ROE of 11.9%. Results reflect strong and diverse revenue performance in both global markets and investment in corporate banking, and the benefit of actions we've taken over the past few years to further strengthen and reposition the business for sustained performance with new capabilities, deeper relationships, and improved efficiency and returns. Our overall U.S. segment is a key driver of earnings growth, contributing 40% of total bank earnings year-to-date. Pre-provision pre-tax earnings were up 46%, with an efficiency ratio of 55%. Our integrated approach brings the full value and scale of BMO to our North American customers, leveraging our top-tier commercial lending market position, leading deposit share and core footprint, and a growing, strategically focused capital markets and private wealth management presence. We're leveraging our strong and consistent financial performance for the benefit of our customers and to support a sustainable and inclusive recovery. We continue to facilitate access to a number of programs for those customers that continue to be impacted by the pandemic, to bridge them to an eventual full reopening of the economy. We're addressing key barriers faced by minorities, including targeting financing for women and minority-owned businesses, and supporting community reinvestment through programs such as BMO EMpower and our announced $10 million donation to create the new Rush BMO Institute for Health Equity in Chicago. Building on our long-standing commitment to a sustainable future and support for the Paris Agreement, this quarter, we declared our ambition to be our clients' lead partner in the transition to a net zero world and created the BMO Climate Institute to drive insights and enhance climate resilience. While the impacts of the pandemic are not yet fully behind us, the North American economy is poised for a strong recovery through 2021 and into 2022, and we will continue to help our customers make real financial progress. We have operating momentum in our businesses, differentiated risk management, and flexibility for capital deployment. I'm confident that we've never been better positioned for the opportunities ahead. I'll now turn it over to Tayfun to talk about the Q2 financial results. Thank you, Darryl. Good morning, and thank you for joining us. I will start my comments on Slide 12. Performance this quarter was solid, with strong adjusted pre-provision pre-tax earnings, positive operating leverage, and continued momentum across each of our businesses. Q2 reported EPS was $1.91, and net income was $1.3 billion. Adjusted EPS was $3.13, and adjusted net income was $2.1 billion, up from the low level than the prior year and up 3% from a strong Q1. Q2 adjusted return on equity was 16.7%, up from 15.8% last quarter, and the efficiency ratio was 56.6%. Adjusting items this quarter include impacts of divestitures that total CAD 772 million after tax, comprising a CAD 747 million write-down of goodwill related to the announced sale of our EMEA Asset Management business, a CAD 22 million after-tax gain from the sale of our private banking business in Hong Kong and Singapore, and CAD 47 million after-tax divestiture-related costs for both transactions. Adjusting items are shown on Slide 35. Net revenue was CAD 6.3 billion, up 16% from last year, with good growth across each of our businesses and continued strength in our capital markets and wealth businesses. Expenses were up 3% from last year and flat quarter-over-quarter. Revenue and expenses in the quarter include certain notable items that, combined, did not significantly impact net income. These included elevated card revenue, reflecting non-recurring items in Canadian P&C, a legal provision in wealth management, and higher expenses related to real estate management. Credit results were very strong. The total provision for credit losses was CAD 60 million, compared with CAD 156 million last quarter, and included a recovery of the provision for performing loans of CAD 95 million. Pat will speak to these in his remarks. Moving to the balance sheet on Slide 13. Average loans were down 4% year-over-year, or 1%, excluding the impact of the weaker U.S. dollar, due to last year's elevated commercial line utilization rates and decline in the non-Canadian energy portfolio, while consumer loans increased due to strong mortgage growth in Canadian P&C. Compared to last quarter, loans were relatively stable, with commercial loans in both P&C businesses up 2% and continued good mortgage growth, while balances in capital markets declined. Average customer deposits were up 15% year-over-year and went up 1% on a linked quarter basis, reflecting the highly liquid corporate and consumer balance sheets. Looking ahead, we expect loan growth to steadily increase in Canada, supported by growth in both personal and commercial loans. In the U.S., we expect loan growth to ramp up past the near-term supply chain and low inventory challenges. Moving to Slide 14 for capital. Our capital position strengthened further this quarter. The Common Equity Tier 1 ratio was 13%, up 60 basis points from 12.4% in the Q2, predominantly reflecting the impact of strong internal capital generation and lower risk-weighted assets. We expect our regulatory capital ratios to continue to grow under the current constraints on capital management actions. Turning to Slide 15. Net interest income was down 2% from last year on both a reported and ex-trading basis. Total bank net interest margin, ex-trading, was up 1 basis point from the prior quarter as higher loan spreads offset lower deposit spreads. In our P&C business, both in the U.S. and Canada, margin was stable. In Canada, the benefit of higher prepayment fees was offset by lower deposit margins and changes in mix, and in the U.S., the benefit of higher loan spreads and accelerated fee income on PPP loans was offset by lower deposit margins. We expect our consolidated NIM to be relatively stable during the remainder of the year and net interest income to remain roughly flat year-over-year. P&C NIMs are expected to decline due to the impact of lower long-term rates rolling in and the expectation for loan growth exceeding deposit growth. Lower prepayment fees expected to put pressure on Canadian P&C NIM, while U.S. P&C NIM is expected to still be supported by PPP fees next quarter, offsetting some pressure from deposit spreads and mix through the remainder of the year. Moving on to Slide 16. We provided additional information on our interest rate sensitivity. As shown on the slide, a 100 basis point rate shock is expected to benefit net interest income by approximately $300 million over the next 12 months, two-thirds driven by short rate impacts. The impact will be higher if we retain the excess deposits that are currently on our balance sheet. The impact of a 25 basis point increase in short-term rates would add approximately $100 million to revenue over the next 12 months. The higher second-year benefit to rising rates would be primarily driven by reinvestment of capital and deposits at higher yields. Turning to Slide 17. Non-interest revenue, net of CCPB, was up 3% from the prior quarter, primarily driven by strong underwriting and advisory fees, as well as higher cards revenue, partially due to non-recurring items and mutual fund revenue. year-over-year comparison in non-interest revenue benefited from last year's challenging market conditions. Although market conditions may cause some period-to-period volatility, overall, items that benefit from reopening economies are very well positioned to see more growth. Moving to Slide 18. Expenses were flat quarter-over-quarter, as lower employee-related costs, including the impact of fewer days in the current quarter, were offset by higher marketing and technology-related costs. Expenses were up year-over-year, reflecting higher performance-based compensation and technology-related costs, offset by lower salaries and travel and business development spend. Efficiency was 56.6%. Operating leverage was strong at 13.1%. Full year expenses should remain well managed. Any incremental increase over last year predominantly will be driven by performance-based compensation due to significant revenue growth. Moving to the operating groups. Starting on Slide 19, Canadian P&C net income was CAD 765 million, up from CAD 363 million last year, reflecting pre-provision pre-tax earnings growth of 19%. Revenue was up 9% from the prior year. Up 2% from last quarter. Expenses were flat to last year and up 2% from last quarter. Operating leverage was strong and efficiency was 45.4%. Average loans were up 3% from last year and up 2% quarter-over-quarter. Deposit growth continued to be strong, up 13% year-over-year. The provision for credit losses was $141 million. Moving to U.S. P&C on Slide 20. My comments here will speak to the U.S. dollar performance. Net income of $439 million compared to $253 million in the prior year. The strong results this quarter reflect 19% pre-provision, pre-tax growth and strong operating leverage. Revenue was up 4% from last year, reflecting growth in both net interest income and non-interest revenue, down 1% from last quarter due to fewer days. Net interest margin was flat sequentially. Expenses were down 8% from last year, driven by lower technology and employee-related costs, and up from last quarter, including the impact of technology costs. Operating leverage was strong at 12%. Efficiency ratio was 49.2%. On the balance sheet, average commercial loans were stable year-over-year and up 2% quarter-over-quarter. Personal lending balances declined year-over-year. Average deposit growth continued to be strong, up 18%. There was a net recovery of CAD 19 million in the provision for credit losses. Moving to Slide 21. Wealth Management had very good results, with net income of CAD 353 million. Traditional wealth net income was strong at CAD 303 million, reflecting higher revenue due to growth in client assets and stronger global markets. Insurance net income was CAD 50 million, compared to a loss of CAD 16 million a year ago. Expenses were up 6% from last year due to higher revenue-based costs. Assets under management and assets under administration both increased 13%. Turning to Slide 22. BMO Capital Markets had another strong quarter, with net income of CAD 570 million. Global markets revenue increased, driven by higher trading and new debt and equity issuances. Higher revenue and investment in corporate banking was driven by strong underwriting activity and net securities gains in the quarter. Expenses were up 10%, reflecting mostly higher performance-based costs, partially offset by lower operating costs and down 5% sequentially. There was a recovery in the provision for credit losses of CAD 55 million. Turning now to Slide 23 for corporate services. The net loss was $140 million, compared to a net loss of $82 million last year. To conclude, performance this quarter demonstrates the benefits of our diversified business model. Our continued focus on efficiency and strategic investments position us well for further growth and profitability. With that, I will turn it over to Pat. Thank you, Tayfun. Good morning, everyone. As Darryl indicated, we were pleased with our risk performance this quarter, where we saw a continued improvement in most of our key risk metrics from our strong Q1 results. In terms of credit performance, both impaired and performing loan loss provisions showed a third consecutive quarter of improvement, underscoring our cautious optimism that we are turning the corner on the financial stress from the pandemic. Starting on Slide 25, the total provision for credit losses was CAD 60 million, or 5 basis points, down from CAD 156 million or 14 basis points last quarter. Impaired provisions for the quarter were CAD 155 million or 13 basis points, down from CAD 215 million at 19 basis points in the Q1 and well below pre-COVID levels. The strong impaired loan loss performance is due to the low rate of new impaired formations, while recoveries were consistent with prior quarters. We are pleased with the results, but do expect impaired provisions to return to more normal levels over time. We recognized a release on performing loans of CAD 95 million this quarter, which was the result of positive credit migration and an improving economic outlook. We now have approximately CAD 2.8 billion of performing loan allowances, and based on our expectation of loan impairment and provisions, we continue to remain comfortable that our allowance provides adequate provisioning against loan losses in the coming year. Turning to the impaired loan credit performance in the operating groups, we saw unusually low loss provisions in several of our business segments. In Canadian P&C, consumer loan losses were CAD 100 million, up 2 basis points from low levels in the prior quarter. In U.S. P&C, consumer losses were $3 million, down significantly from last quarter. In addition, delinquency rates improved in both Canada and the United States. In our commercial and corporate businesses, we have seen similarly encouraging credit performance, driven largely by our U.S. segment, where we posted a Q3 of low impaired provisions. In U.S. Commercial, we reported impaired loan provisions of $3 million. The decline in provisions was driven by very low formations this quarter, very little new reservations and modest recoveries. Canadian Commercial also had good credit performance this quarter, with CAD 54 million of impaired loan losses, down from CAD 58 million in the prior quarter. Our capital markets business had excellent credit performance this quarter, with a net recovery of $6 million, down significantly from the Q1 provision of $45 million. The decline was driven by zero impaired formations this quarter in our capital markets business. On Slide 27, impaired formations at $425 million, declined 36% from last quarter and are at the lowest levels in recent years. We saw significant improvements in some sectors that have been particularly stressed over the past year, such as oil and gas, where we recorded zero formations this quarter, and in our sectors, highly impacted by COVID, where formations were quite modest. Gross impaired loans declined by $442 million to 65 basis points, continuing the trend towards pre-COVID levels that we've seen over the past few quarters. On Slide 29, we provide an overview of those sectors where we have seen COVID-related impacts on credit quality. These segments make up less than 5% of our portfolio, notwithstanding the stress, our impaired loan losses across these segments have been quite modest relative to formations to date, reflecting strong origination practices and loan structures. We continue to closely monitor these segments, particularly given the prolonged lockdowns in Canada. Finally, as you see on Slide 30, there were no trading loss days this quarter. In terms of the outlook, we remain cautiously optimistic given the solid credit performance we've seen in the last 3 quarters, and we expect credit losses through fiscal 2021 to remain manageable. In terms of the performing provision, while uncertainty remains in terms of the future path of the pandemic, assuming vaccination progresses in our key markets and we continue to see a reduction in COVID cases, we would expect further releases from our performing provision in the coming quarters. In terms of impaired loan losses, given the strength of current credit conditions and the near-term economic outlook, we may see the next few quarters continue with low credit losses. Looking into fiscal 2022, our expectation is that impaired loan losses will normalize and average in the range of low 20s in terms of basis points. I will now turn the call back to the operator for the question and answer portion of this call. Thank you. We will now take questions from the telephone lines. If you have a question and you are using a speakerphone, please lift your handset before making your selection. If you have a question, please press star one on your device's keypad. You may cancel your question at any time by pressing star two. Please press star one at this time if you have a question. There will be a brief pause while participants register for questions. We thank you for your patience. Our first question is from Ebrahim Poonawala from the Bank of America. Please go ahead. Good morning. I guess, just the first question around commercial loan growth. I heard you say, I think, both Darryl and Tayfun talk about expectations for a pickup. You did actually have commercial loan growth up quarter over quarter, both in Canada and the U.S. Just talk to us in terms of what we are hearing from the U.S. banks, there's a lot of liquidity impact, also weighing on borrower demand. Give us a sense of timing of in both regions when you see commercial loan growth picking up, and do you expect Canada to be stronger than the U.S. as we see a pickup in loan demand? Ebrahim, it's David Casper. Let me. Hey, Dave. Try to give you a sense. When we talk to our clients, and this would be pretty similar on both sides of the border, demand for their products is really quite strong, and we're seeing that really across all of our industries, regions. Our pipelines are up across the board. They're back to pre-pandemic levels. We continue on both sides of the border to add a lot of new clients. To part of your point, many of those clients, while we give them authorizations for credit, they're really not borrowing today. They come over, we get their operating business, but they're not borrowing. Continues to be high, I'd say enthusiasm on both sides of the border for growth continues to be high. The headwinds, which Darryl and Tayfun have both covered are real, and those are, you know, the inventory pipelines are basically clogged across the borders now. Labor issues are real. They really are real. There are very few of our clients that aren't having issues there. There's product delays, and there's price increases. All of that is kind of the backdrop to, here's the answer, I think, to your questions. Loan growth, as you pointed out, was actually sequentially up both in Canada and the U.S. this quarter, and I expect it will continue to grow during the quarters, but at a, you know, at a modest pace. I think by the Q4, we'll start to be back to loan growth, as, you know, starting to see what we've seen in the past with the modest increase year-over-year. I think last year, we were pretty optimistic that we'd have loan growth by the end of this year, and I continue to believe that. I'm more optimistic now than I ever was in terms of over the next 2 years, including the next 2 quarters. It's going to get better. The economy is coming back. I don't think Canada is going to be necessarily any faster than the U.S., but they're both growing, and I'm just reflecting the optimism of our clients, and I've, you know, I've already outlined some of the headwinds, but those will go away. Let me stop there and see if I've answered your question appropriately. That is helpful, Dave, and just one thing to add on to that, like pre-pandemic, we did see BMO in the U.S. You've talked a lot about white space and market share opportunities. Should we expect you to outperform if and when commercial loan growth for the industry rebounds, given the market share opportunities you've had maybe over the last five to seven years? I think we will continue in the U.S. to take advantage of the white space we have, the industries we cover, the geographies that we cover, that we continue to grow. I would expect that just as we have in the past, we will be peer leading in our loan growth over the next couple of years. really, you know, more important than loan growth, client acquisition growth. Got it. What was the PPP balance, if you have that at the end of the quarter? In the U.S.? Yes. Around CAD 4 billion, I think. Average loans are four. Yeah, average, we're about CAD 4 billion. The remaining fees tied to that you expect to accrue as they get forgiven? I think we've basically accrued about half of the fees, that we've received. We've accrued about half, and the rest will come in through the next couple of quarters and into next year. I think it's around, in U.S. Dollars, around $100 million. Tayfun is, can correct me if that's not close. Yes. Got it. Thank you for taking my questions. Thank you. Our following question is from Paul Holden, from CIBC. Please go ahead. Thank you. Good morning. First, I just want to ask a quick question of clarification. Tayfun, you mentioned, you expect NII to be roughly flat year-over-year. Just want to clarify if that's for the full year, 2021 or the back half of the year? Full year 2021 compared to full year 2020. Thank you. Thank you for that clarification. Okay. My next question is just regarding the NIM sensitivity table you provided in the slide deck there, which is very helpful and really highlights the upside you have in the U.S. business. Just wondering, to your knowledge, is there anything different about BMO's Canadian business that would perhaps make it any more or less rate sensitive than peers domestically? I don't think so. I think it's really. I mean, the contrast that you see between the U.S. and the Canadian side is more related to the deposit sensitivities. In the U.S., you know, the picture is a bit different. But I don't think that necessarily to my knowledge, that there are significant differences in Canada, between us, and the peers. Some of the, obviously, we continue to also, you know, invest and roll both our deposits and equity on a periodic basis. You know, you may see some quarter-over-quarter changes in that, in that number. It more relates to how we invest those balances. Got it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Our following question is from Meny Grauman, from Scotiabank. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning. On the subject of rate sensitivity, Tayfun, you talked about how the rate sensitivity can go higher, if you're able to retain, the excess deposits that you've built over the pandemic. I'm just wondering how much upside is there? What's your expectation there, as you look at it now? Meny, if we assume that we retain all of the balances, you know, it's a modeling exercise, basically, then the sensitivity could be, you know, 70%, 80% higher than what we are showing up here. We don't want to do that, as we expect those balances to eventually leave the banking system. That sort of is the range that I can give you. It is a number that is quite sensitive to the assumptions around, you know, retention of those deposits. That's helpful. Then maybe as a follow-up, just on the business side, if you could kind of try and highlight, you know, what are you doing on the business side to try and retain those deposits? Is there a particular difference, Canada versus the U.S.? Just trying to get a sense of how you can make those deposits stickier, how realistic that is to expect that some of those deposits will stay. Well, it's Dave. I'll talk a little bit about the commercial side. I think the reality is we are viewed as a pretty safe place to put excess deposits, combined with a very good place to actually have your operating accounts. During this pandemic, we've benefited on both sides. We will retain more than probably what the model suggests, at least compared to what we've done in the past. We always seem to retain more. As clients need to use them for borrowing, obviously, they'll come down, but we have a lot of clients that just don't borrow, and we'll keep a fair amount of money in short term, and we'll retain those. What we're really doing is we're always competitive, but today, we don't have to be that competitive to keep these rates and keep these balances. It's basically the same on both sides of the border. That would be the, in essence, the commercial strategy. Erminia's done a great job on the, on the retail side as well. Great. Thanks, Dave. I'll take over on, many on the retail side. I'll start with the U.S. first then do Canada. On the U.S. side, as you know, we've been acquiring deposits across 50 states in the U.S. and are committed to continuing to maintain good relationships in those growth engines for deposits. We've shifted our focus away, and this is a North American statement, away from the broker term CD market, and have been really focusing on our customer base and on checking and savings growth. On both sides of the border, we have been accelerating our initiatives to digitize that process, acquire more new customers for those key relationships that start with a checking and a savings account. You'll see that growth happening in Canada in our retail deposit share movement, and as well as our continued investment in marketing campaigns for growth. We're really pleased with those relationships and find that those deposits, as you can imagine, are sticky. As we see the economy open, there may be a little bit of softening, as consumers start spending on both sides of the border, we'll see a decrease in those deposits. As I've said, as we acquire more new customers, and we anticipate that the surge deposits that we've acquired will be slower running off than one had imagined a few months ago. That's initially what we're seeing as the economies are slower to ramp up the consumer spending. Really, really a good news story on both sides of the, of the border on the retail side. Thank you. Thank you. Our following question is from Doug Young from Desjardins Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning. I guess this question is for Pat. I'm just trying to think of credit here, and I mean, but if I go pre, well, your average coverage ratio for performing loans was, I think, around 32 basis points in fiscal 18 and fiscal 19. What I'm trying to get at, is there any reason why you can't revert back to this level, call it over the next few years? Is there some structural changes? Are you just going to be more conservative? Or what would be a reasonable timeframe? If you're confident in your book, what would be a reasonable timeframe for getting back to that level? Well, great. Thanks for the question, Doug. I would say, you know, first of all, in terms of the timing for getting down or timing of releases, it's really going to depend, you know, on primarily how we see lockdowns easing, particularly in Canada. A commensurate reduction in stress for those borrowers that are uniquely impacted by the lockdowns. We'd like to see an easing of some of the health issues that are percolating, and certainly in countries like India, that may have a larger impact on the global economy. Some stability in Canadian housing prices would probably be another trigger for us to start to release. In terms of where we get back down to, it really depends, you know, a lot on the mix of the book and, you know, some things we might provision higher for versus others. It depends a lot on how some of the sectors grow, as well as the product mix within the consumer business. Then, you know, I would expect us to remain slightly elevated versus our historic levels, you know, because now we obviously have a new stress event to consider when we think about, you know, what the tail of loan losses could be as we move forward. It'll take some time to go back down. My gut is probably over the course of the next 12 to 18 months, we'll see a reduction to something that's more stable, and it'll probably settle slightly above, where it's been, pre-COVID. Okay, that's helpful. Just on card fees, I mean, it was mentioned there was a non-recurring item. What I'm trying to get an idea of just the trending of card fees, so I don't know if you can quantify what the non-recurring item was, so that we can kind of look at card fees excluding that. Can you talk a bit about what you're seeing in the card business, in general? Thank you. Yeah. Let me ask the, let me answer the fee question, and then I'll turn it over to Erminia about what she is seeing. Doug, as I said, there were three notable items during the quarter. Altogether, they didn't have any impact on net income, and one of them was in card fees. In terms of sort of the trend expectations, what I would suggest is that in a quarter or two, as, you know, consumer spend activity picks up and card swipes continue to go up, we would expect to grow into this number. You know, away from, you know, the one-time impact this quarter. That's how I would look into sort of modeling that line item. In terms of what Erminia is seeing, Erminia, I will turn it over to you on that topic. Great. Thanks, Tayfun, and thanks for the question, Doug. If I look at sort of card-related revenue, obviously elevated this quarter, as you've mentioned, that line typically has a couple of items in there that move around. Timing of reward costs is one, the actual consumer spending that occurs through that. As I look for, you know, in the past month or so, what we're seeing is a return back to, I would say, pre-pandemic levels of spending. It's just in a recent in the past month or so that we're returning back to 2019 numbers. That's good to see overall. We're seeing it in a couple of categories. As you can imagine, historically, in the pandemic, you saw, you know, grocery, home reno, gardening kind of categories at their peak and above normal levels. Now what we're starting to see is a return to travel. We're seeing that across hotels, travel industry. That's really a good indication of what we're going to be facing in the next little while, which is as consumers are more confident about the pandemic situation, get vaccinated, we're seeing that spend grow. I would anticipate that we are going to be seeing stronger and strengthening consumer payment spend. I'm seeing that even now on credit card acquisition. You know, we're really pleased with our launch of our new Visa Eclipse products. They're performing extremely well in terms of acquisition growth. It would appear that the payments business is getting back up to where it was pre-pandemic. We're really pleased with that performance. Thank you. Thank you. Our following question is from Gabriel Dechaine from National Bank Financial. Please go ahead. Good morning. I have a quick one on the prepayment income and then a follow-up. In Canada, do you have a, can you tell if you have maybe a more, a strategy to encourage prepayment activity? You know, relatedly, like, what is the size of these revenues been over the past couple of quarters? It's Erminia. I'll, I think you're referring to prepayment on mortgages? Yes, yes, mortgages. Okay. Thanks. Thanks for the clarification. It's an interesting question. You know, obviously, consumers are taking advantage of a lower interest rate environment to refinance. Mm-hmm. We're also seeing consolidation of lending, literally looking at how do they consolidate into home equity lines. In terms of the prepayment, this will be a phenomena that continues as we have low interest rates. Do I anticipate it to diminish? I think over the coming months, you will see that, just as more consumers have taken advantage of it, who were interested in taking advantage of prepayments have done so. Also, as we go forward, we're going to see increased spend, if I can use that terminology, and that will also be helping our overall lending growth versus the prepayment fees that you're speaking of. What's the size been of these revenues over the past couple of quarters? I don't have that offhand. We can probably come back to you with that, as a proportion, of our NR. Okay, that'd be great. For whoever, maybe Pat, you know, and business heads as well, like, the inflation topic is, of course, top of mind everywhere. How are you thinking about, you know, the numbers we've been seeing lately, both from a positive and a negative sense, because it could suppress demand if people delay their buying decisions, when prices are moving so fast and up? It does help, I guess, from a credit risk standpoint on LTVs, on what's on the books already. You know, I'm mumbling here, but if you can give me a sense of how you're thinking about the inflationary story these days and how you're preparing for good or bad things? Sure. Maybe I'll start. It's Pat, then I'll turn it to others. Specifically to the inflation that you're seeing in home prices, you know, you're correct, you know, with existing homeowners, that has the effect of actually improving LTV, so that's a credit positive. We are looking, though, very carefully at existing originations. Their, you know, elevated home prices may exaggerate LTVs, and so, you know, our risk management practices on housing is dynamic anyway, and so through the cycle, as prices change, we adjust our practices. You know, we're routing more mortgages to manual adjudication, particularly where we're looking at areas where we've seen rapid house price appreciation, just to make sure that we're comfortable. Ultimately, our mortgages and loans are to the borrower's ability to pay, not the house price. To the extent we're satisfied with that, you know, then we're comfortable from a risk perspective. Broadly, you know, we are stress testing our loan portfolios against higher interest rates. You know, generally speaking, we do that anyway. As you know, for sure, for consumer as well as commercial borrowers, when we originate, we stress test against higher interest rates anyway to make sure that they can sustain the level of borrowing in the event of higher interest rates. We stress test the portfolio broadly, and, you know, this will evolve over time for sure, but what we're seeing right now is the stress that could be caused by inflation is definitely manageable within the earnings power. Anybody else on the business growth side? Well, actually, I'll stick with you, Pat. The stuff like, are you seeing any commercial borrowers or their input costs are based on these, on all the commodity prices that are soaring and, you know, that might be squeezing their margins, are you seeing any of that at all? Well, we're definitely seeing some input costs across the board at this point, with, I don't think any exceptions. Most of this is getting passed on, and it's expected, which is clearly, if this continues, we'll have some inflationary pressures. Right now, our customers need to get the inventory. Mm-hmm. They're paying for it, and it will likely get passed on. I don't see big margin pressures. Maybe just one follow-on to that. Certainly from a risk perspective, we're not seeing it driving widescale stress in the, in the portfolio. You know, you would normally start to see that show up in negative credit migration. In fact, for the Q2 in a row, we've had some pretty healthy positive credit migration across the wholesale book. You know, it's obviously, as Dave said, it's not, it's not immune, but we're not seeing it show up broad-based in terms of negative migration. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Our following question is from Lemar Persaud, from Cormark Securities. Please go ahead. All right. My first question is on the interest rate sensitivity disclosure. First of all, thanks for providing that. I think it's useful. I'm just wondering if you could just answer a high level question. How much could these sensitivities change from quarter to quarter? I guess where I'm going with this is that one of the big downfalls on the structural interest rate sensitivity tables that all the banks provide in their annual reports and MD&As is that it changes so much from quarter to quarter, and it's only really relevant for a specific point in time. If the sensitivity is, if this interest rate sensitivity table is subject to similar levels of volatility, it becomes a little bit yes, less useful for me. I'm just wondering if you could offer some comments on that. Very good question. These are clearly as of the date that they are run. They are published. There will be quarter-over-quarter changes in this number, depending upon the actions that we would be taking during that quarter. That clearly will have an impact on the sensitivity. You know, at point in time, you know, we may decide to invest a larger portion of the liquidity that we're in, which takes away, you know, the remaining sensitivity on those balances. We may have, you know, different hedging policies depending upon our perspectives that we execute during the quarter. The reason why we decided to give you the numbers without necessarily adding deposit liquidity, for example, that I mentioned, which would have shown higher sensitivities, is partially due to that reason, because we did not want to sort of, you know, create challenges in comparing quarter-over-quarter numbers. There will be some changes depending upon, you know, our rate management actions, and also movement in the yield curve that occurs. These are natural factors, not necessarily related to any structural changes in sort of the underlying unhedged balance sheet. All right. Thank you. Just maybe if I could squeeze another one in here. I'm just wondering if I could get some thoughts on the impact of the more stringent qualifying rates for domestic mortgages. Do you think that some of the really strong growth we saw this quarter just being pulled forward to get ahead of the higher qualifying rates, and then we could see a bit of a slowdown in coming quarters? Maybe just some thoughts on that. Yeah, it's Erminia. I'll take that one. There will be some impact as a result of that increased, what we call the stress test, as you said. The impact will be probably about 5%–10% max from the perspective of impacted borrowers. That said, there are ways in which they can obviously find a lower priced house, being able to either find more equity somewhere from parents and gifting and all those sorts of good things. It's very difficult to understand what the full impact will be. They may actually just end up these consumers going to a lower priced house in that case. You know, overall there will be some sort of moderation to the extent of being able to say what exactly that's going to be, it's difficult to say. We can assume, just given what we're seeing right now in, you know, kind of housing prices and sales, that there will be some moderation. That would be our expectation over the next little while, but it will still remain a fairly robust mortgage market in Canada, for sure, over the next little while. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Our following question is from Mario Mendonca from TD Securities. Please go ahead. Good morning. If we could go back to your guidance on net interest income for the year being flat. Given the comments on, and the apparent momentum in your loans, commercial and also on the retail side, I was a little surprised by that. It was also sort of surprising in the context of the move we've seen in the U.S. five year and the Canadian five year in the quarter. Maybe what I'm getting at here is, assuming the loan growth remains good and perhaps even accelerates, as Dave suggested, where will the margins come in? Because that's the only other explanation. Are you pointing us to lower margins in Canada and the U.S., or lower margins outside of the domestic P&C franchise? Yeah, again, another good question. Partially, you know, if you go back to slide 16, you know, we are expecting NIM be relatively flat. You know, that's partially as a result of the right side of that slide, where the reinvestment yields currently are still below those that are coming off from prior investments of either our equity roles or deposit roles. That still is an, a phenomenon that continues to put some pressure on NIMs. In terms of year-over-year comparisons, you know, in Canada, for example, although we are benefiting from mortgage growth, which is elevating our average loans, relative to past years, obviously, we are not necessarily seeing much growth in credit cards, which has, you know, higher spreads. That's also playing a role, both in the U.S. as well as in Canada. As, you know, the composition of the loan portfolio is slightly changing until, you know, personal borrowing, including credit cards, picks up, which has higher spreads. You know, there's nothing really unique about the guidance. You know, if we end up seeing stronger average loan growth in the second half of the year than, you know, what we're anticipating, then you would see a pickup in NII. I think in general, the guidance is, you know, pretty much in line with both what's happening, you know, on NIM as well as in sort of the composition of the loan portfolio. Okay. Can I just put the final point on it? Or sorry, rather, if the total bank margin is essentially just flat going forward for the remainder of this year, I can't see how BMO doesn't grow the NII. It just, like, the numbers don't add up. NII grows year-over-year if your margin is flat. I mean, I don't know, it's just sort of like a mathematical truism. Maybe it's something we could take offline because I just don't, I don't follow your guidance very well. Yeah, I think, you know, it probably goes back to sort of the yield on earning assets, that, you know, is changing a little bit. I, you know, again, we can discuss. You know, again, we're giving you a guidance as we see it today, but is there an upside? You know, there may be some upside to the guidance, depending upon how the second half moves. Okay, maybe a different type of question then. The FX fees just looked really good this quarter. Was there anything special in there, or was that. I'm not referring to FX trading. I'm talking about the FX fees, non-trading. They were just very good this quarter. Was that just really good client activity in the quarter, or was there something else going on? There's nothing unique on, in that line item in terms of any quarterly, one-time impacts. It's just client activity. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Our last question is from Scott Chan from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead. Good morning. On the capital markets side, obviously very solid in the quarter, could you offer us any kind of guidance that you see, you know, over the next few quarters in terms of ECM or M&A advisory activity? It's great. Well, thanks for the question. Obviously very satisfied with the quarter. Great to see the investments that we've made and the portfolio adjustments really start to pay off. I think it also is a demonstration of the diversification of our platform, both in terms of product markets and clients. As we look forward, I think we'll continue to see the benefit of the investments we made across the platform, particularly in the U.S., where you've seen the strong results we've had year to date. We expect those to continue on as we go. Our pipelines remain very strong. M&A, in particular, has been building and growing. We had a very strong quarter in equities and in leveraged finance. I think as M&A activity continuing to pick up over the balance of the year, we'll continue to see strong revenue growth there. I think we'll also benefit as we look forward to the portfolio choices we've made in terms of what we've been doing, driving our cost structure down. You saw our efficiency ratio is less than 55% year to date, and I think we'll continue on that benefit. I think we'll also continue to have a benefit in the strong credit environment that we've experienced, and that's going to continue on. All in all, strong performance we expect coming into the balance of the year. Great. Maybe just lastly for Darryl, just on the capital side, got to ask you, the CET1 ratio of 13% pro forma higher with the asset management sales. Assuming that OSFI does lift restrictions later this year, at this point today, what are your kind of capital priorities, including M&A? Thanks. Yeah, thanks for the question. Short story, unchanged. The first use of our capital is for our clients and devoting it to their benefit and their growth. I think we've shown that in the past, in expanding environments where we've been able to grow and take that white space that we talked about earlier in the call, we've been able to do that in increasingly profitable returns. That would be priority one. You're into the tree on deploying it to dividend increases versus buybacks. I'm not going to get into the speculative game of when that will be possible. That'll be to the regulator's decision. When it is, you would expect us to be active there, absent being active on the M&A front. On the M&A front, I'll go back to a framing, I think I've given before. I talk about this in terms of tools and discipline. As far as tools are concerned, without question, we've got lots of them. We've got excess capital, we've got operating momentum, we've got a great team, and we've got good muscle, I would say, in terms of the success that we've had in the acquisitions we've made. Tools are great, but they don't come at the expense of discipline, and discipline for us is strategic, it's cultural, and it's financial. You know, I think I've said before, you have to be careful not to swing at every pitch. There are lots of pitches, but lots of them are in the dirt. If you see us active, it'll be because we landed something that meets both the discipline and the tools. If you see us not active, it'll be because we haven't found something that goes over the discipline bar. I'll leave it at that. Yeah, I like that analogy. Thanks a lot. Thank you. That concludes the question and answer session. I would now like to turn the meeting back over to Mr. White. Okay. Thank you, all of you, for your question. Let me wrap up quickly here with four key, summary themes. Number one, our results for the first half of the year, as I said earlier, are clearly very strong with our ROE, our EPS growth, and our operating leverage all above our midterm targets. Number two, we're not stopping there. We're moving the bar significantly higher on our expense and our efficiency commitments, and we have strategies in place to do more. Number three, our credit quality will remain a differentiator for us, as it has for decades. Number four, our purpose-driven strategy is delivering consistent performance. The strong momentum and the clear potential across all of our businesses, the advantaged business mix, is ready for more, especially with an accelerating economic backdrop that we're driving into. I'm highly confident that as the economies reopen, we're going to continue to accelerate through the next year and beyond. Thank you all for participating in this morning's call. We look forward to speaking to you again in August. Thank you. The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time. We thank you for your participation.