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Scotiabank Appoints Hodgson to Head New Asset Management Business Unit
Bank of Nova Scotia’s development of a separate asset-management unit creates “opportunities” for Canada’s third-largest lender to expand globally, Chief Executive Officer Richard Waugh said.
“There are now significant opportunities that are open to us,” Waugh said today in a telephone interview. “We’re very comfortable with our business model, and now is the time to make use of the opportunity.”
Waugh, 62, didn’t specify what opportunities the lender may look at. The new unit, Scotiabank’s fourth business line, will be headed by Chris Hodgson, previously head of the Canadian consumer-banking division, the bank said today. Anatol von Hahn, executive vice president of Canadian banking, succeeds Hodgson.
During the last three years, Scotiabank has expanded its asset-management business in Canada, purchasing stakes in mutual fund managers CI Financial Corp. and DundeeWealth Inc. The Toronto-based lender also bought the Canadian business of E*Trade Financial Corp. in 2008 for $442 million.
“We’re continually adding to our market share in the mutual-fund business,” said Waugh. “We’ve had other initiatives so that this fourth business leg is at a scale that is equal to some of the other businesses.”
Scotiabank reported last month that its mutual-fund business had the highest net sales of funds among Canadian banks in the fiscal third quarter.
The lender follows Canadian rivals Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Montreal, which report asset- management activities as a separate unit in quarterly results. Scotiabank’s new divison will incorporate the existing asset- management business and insurance products. The business will begin reporting results separately from other units in the fiscal year that begins Nov. 1, 2010, Waugh said.
Hodgson, 56, has helped expand the bank’s asset-management business since joining the lender in 2003 after heading National Bank of Canada’s Altamira mutual-fund unit.
International bank head Rob Pitfield and Chief Risk Officer Brian Porter, 52, are switching roles as part of the management changes, Scotiabank said in the statement.
The lender said today its Scotia Capital investment bank will continue to be led by Mike Durland and Steve McDonald, although it plans to expand the unit to focus on opportunities in Latin America and Asia.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sean B. Pasternak in Toronto at spasternak@bloomberg.net.
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