Royal Bank to Slow Hiring After Earnings Miss on Higher Costs

  • ‘We overshot by thousands of people,’ CEO McKay says
  • Bank boosts credit-loss provisions, following BMO, Scotiabank
Photographer: Della Rollins/Bloomberg
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Royal Bank of Canada missed analysts’ estimates as expenses and loan-loss provisions increased, making it the latest lender to take a profit hit due to a darkening economic picture. The shares slumped.

Higher expenses were a big factor in the earnings decline. Compensation costs were up 15% from a year earlier as the bank added more than 8,000 employees.