The Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS): PESTLE Analysis [Nov-2025 Updated]

The Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) in 2025 is navigating a financial dual-reality: high interest rates are squeezing Canadian Net Interest Margin (NIM), while political volatility is a constant in its key Pacific Alliance markets. Your investment thesis hinges on whether their massive digital push-cloud migration and Generative AI-can defintely offset these near-term economic and regulatory headwinds. We've mapped out the six critical macro-forces-Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal, and Environmental-so you can see precisely where BNS's biggest risks and opportunities lie right now.

The Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) - PESTLE Analysis: Political factors

Geopolitical stability risk in Pacific Alliance markets (Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia)

The Bank of Nova Scotia's (BNS) strategy hinges on its International Banking segment, which draws significant earnings from the Pacific Alliance countries-Mexico, Peru, Chile, and Colombia. While this region offers a higher weighted average real GDP growth projection of 2.18% compared to Canada's 1.92% as of early 2025, it introduces substantial political volatility. You're trading lower growth stability at home for higher-risk, higher-return growth abroad. This is a classic diversification play, but it requires constant risk monitoring.

In Q3 2025, International Banking delivered adjusted earnings of $716 million, a solid 7% year-over-year increase, showing the bank is managing to grow despite the noise. However, the political landscape remains turbulent, directly impacting investor confidence and operational stability:

• Peru: Political uncertainty spiked in late 2025 after President Dina Boluarte's removal from office dueing to corruption scandals, triggering a new leadership change and undermining investor confidence ahead of the 2026 elections.
• Colombia: Rising security risks were underscored by a surge in political violence, including an attack on an opposition candidate, which creates a fragile institutional environment for corporate lending.
• Chile: The political climate is highly polarized ahead of the presidential runoff, with the debate centered on tax reform and public spending, which can directly affect the operating environment for financial institutions.

Here's the quick math: approximately 28% of BNS's total earnings are derived from this region, making the political risk a material factor in the bank's overall valuation. You can't ignore a quarter of your profit base.

Canadian federal government's housing policy impacts mortgage lending volume

The federal government's aggressive housing policies in 2025 are a direct political response to the affordability crisis, and they have a dual impact on BNS's Canadian Banking business. On one hand, they aim to boost housing supply and demand, which is good for mortgage origination volume; on the other, they increase the bank's exposure to higher-risk borrowers.

The government softened mortgage qualification rules in late 2024/early 2025 to increase market access, which should start to show up in BNS's lending volume:

• The maximum purchase price cap for insured mortgages (those with less than a 20% down payment) was raised from $1 million to nearly $1,499,999.
• First-time homebuyers and new construction buyers with insured mortgages can now use a 30-year amortization period, up from 25 years, potentially reducing monthly payments by around 10%.

The policy shift is clearly designed to increase the pool of eligible borrowers. To boost supply, the 2025 Federal Budget proposes increasing the Canada Mortgage Bond annual issuance limit from $60 billion to $80 billion, helping lenders like BNS finance multi-unit construction. The Canadian Banking segment reported adjusted earnings of $959 million in Q3 2025, a 2% decline year-over-year, partly due to higher provision for credit losses, but the quarter-over-quarter rebound of 56% suggests stabilization as interest rate cuts begin to take effect. The near-term opportunity is volume growth, but the risk is credit quality. Defintely something to watch.

Trade agreements (USMCA) influence cross-border corporate banking activity

The political stability of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is a foundational element for BNS's Global Banking and Markets (GBM) segment, which focuses on the 'North American corridor.' This segment facilitates the cross-border corporate banking, trade finance, and capital markets activity driven by the trilateral trade relationship, which totaled $1.9 trillion CAD in 2023.

The political risk here is the potential for US protectionism, specifically the threat to dismantle the USMCA and reintroduce tariffs, a risk that was amplified by political rhetoric in late 2025. Any disruption to the integrated supply chains that have flourished under the USMCA-which saw export growth rates increase from 4.8% to 5.8% post-ratification-would directly curb the demand for BNS's corporate services. However, the GBM segment is currently a powerhouse, reporting Q3 2025 earnings of $473 million, an impressive 29% jump year-over-year, largely driven by capital markets performance. The political threat is real, but the corporate activity is still strong. This table shows the segment's exposure to this corridor's health:

Increased scrutiny on bank-insurer separation rules from regulatory bodies

The regulatory environment for Canadian financial institutions is undergoing a comprehensive political and legislative review in 2025, specifically the mandated review of the Bank Act, Insurance Companies Act, and Trust and Loan Companies Act. The biggest shift is the move by the federal government to replace certain legislated limits on borrowing and portfolio investments with more flexible OSFI guidance. This transfers more power and responsibility to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI).

While the old 'bank-insurer separation' rules (anti-tied selling) are always under scrutiny, the current regulatory focus for 2025-2026 is broader, targeting systemic resilience and capital. OSFI's Annual Risk Outlook emphasizes:

• Intensified supervision of top credit risks, especially real estate secured lending (RESL), which directly affects BNS's mortgage portfolio.
• Adjustments to capital guidelines for life insurers, such as removing the 5% cap on the reduction in Tier 1 capital deduction for stop-loss reinsurance, giving BNS's insurance operations greater capital management flexibility.
• A continued focus on operational resilience, particularly cyber and third-party supplier risks, which is a new compliance cost for all major banks.

This political environment means less rigid legislation but more intense, principles-based supervision from OSFI. The action for you is to ensure BNS's compliance and risk teams are aligned with the new OSFI guidance, especially on RESL and operational resilience, as the regulator is ready to use its 'toolbox of relief measures' dynamically.

The Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) - PESTLE Analysis: Economic factors

Canadian interest rates peaked, impacting Net Interest Margin (NIM) compression in 2025.

You need to understand that the Bank of Canada's (BoC) rate-hiking cycle is definitively over as of 2025, shifting the economic environment from margin expansion to margin pressure. The consensus forecast from Scotiabank's own economists sees the BoC policy rate dropping from its 2024 level to an expected 2.25% by the end of 2025. Other major bank forecasts range between 2.0% and 2.75%.

This decline in the overnight rate means the cost of funding for the bank will fall, but the yields on new loans and mortgages will also drop, leading to a squeeze on the Net Interest Margin (NIM) across the Canadian Banking segment. Honestly, the real challenge is managing the pace of deposit repricing relative to loan repricing. What this estimate hides is the lag effect; if deposit rates stay sticky, NIM compression is defintely coming. We expect the Canadian economy to grow by a modest 1.2% in 2025, which is a slight slowdown from the 2024 pace.

Latin American inflation rates drive higher loan loss provisions in international banking.

The International Banking division, which focuses on the Pacific Alliance countries (Mexico, Peru, Chile, and Colombia), faces a persistent risk from elevated, though moderating, inflation and restrictive monetary policy. While inflation is generally trending down, core inflation across Latin America rose to 4.7% in August 2025. This sustained price pressure, coupled with high real policy rates, constrains borrowers' ability to service debt and increases the risk of loan impairment.

This environment forces BNS to increase its Provision for Credit Losses (PCL). For example, the bank's total provision for credit losses was $562 million in Q3 2025. The restrictive monetary stances, particularly in Mexico, where the policy rate is forecast to be 7.00% at the end of 2025, will constrain refinancing capacity and push up provisioning costs across the region.

Here's the quick math on the policy rate outlook for BNS's key markets:

Global economic slowdown affects BNS's capital markets division revenue.

Despite a global economic slowdown, BNS's Global Banking and Markets (GBM) segment has shown surprising resilience in the near term, but the risk remains. Global growth is projected to slow from 3.3% in 2024 to 2.9% in 2025, with the slowdown concentrated in key North American markets. This typically dampens investment banking activity like Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) and Initial Public Offerings (IPOs).

To be fair, BNS's GBM unit delivered strong Q2 2025 earnings of $473 million, which was up 29% year-over-year. This was largely driven by a massive 54% quarter-over-quarter jump in capital markets revenues, mainly from higher fixed income trading. Plus, underwriting and advisory fees saw a 28% year-to-date growth. The bank is capitalizing on record-high M&A fees in 2025, but a sustained global slowdown will inevitably curb this momentum, making the Q2 performance a high bar to clear for the rest of the fiscal year.

Strong Canadian dollar relative to Latin American currencies creates translation risk on profits.

The translation risk, which is the impact of converting foreign-denominated profits back to Canadian dollars (CAD), is complex and, in 2025, appears to be a tailwind, not a headwind, for BNS's International Banking. The Canadian dollar is forecast to remain relatively stable against the US dollar (USD), with the CAD/USD rate around 0.71 by the end of 2025.

However, the currencies of BNS's core Latin American markets are generally forecast to strengthen against the USD over the year, which means the CAD is relatively weaker against them. A weaker CAD relative to the local currency means that every dollar of profit earned in Mexico or Chile translates into more CAD when repatriated. This creates a positive translation opportunity for BNS's reported profits.

• Mexican Peso (USD/MXN) is forecast to strengthen from 20.83 in 2024 to 18.65 by end of 2025.
• Chilean Peso (USD/CLP) is forecast to strengthen from 995 to 890 by end of 2025.
• Colombian Peso (USD/COP) is forecast to strengthen from 4,406 to 3,986 by end of 2025.

The risk is that this strengthening trend reverses quickly, which is common in emerging markets, but for now, the currency translation is a boost to International Banking's reported earnings.

The Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) - PESTLE Analysis: Social factors

As a financial analyst, I see the social landscape for The Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) not as a soft factor, but as a hard driver of revenue and risk, especially in wealth management and digital strategy. The confluence of an aging, wealthy Canadian population and a digitally-native, financially-underserved Latin American market creates a clear mandate for specialized product development and transparent operations.

Shifting demographics in Canada demand specialized wealth and retirement products.

The Canadian wealth transfer is accelerating, pushing BNS to pivot its product suite away from accumulation and toward preservation, longevity, and intergenerational planning. The median net worth of Canadians aged 65 and older now exceeds $1 million, a massive pool of capital that demands bespoke services. This demographic shift is concrete: the number of Canadian households with members aged 65 to 74 is projected to grow by nearly 800,000 in the next decade, with the wealth held by this and the 75+ group expected to increase by nearly a trillion dollars.

Still, retirement anxiety is high, which is an opportunity for advice-driven revenue. About 66% of unretired Canadians expect to keep working in retirement to support themselves financially, and 49% are concerned about outliving their savings, according to a June 2025 survey. This is a clear signal to double down on annuity products and holistic financial planning. The fact that 46% of retirees left the workforce earlier than planned highlights a need for greater financial resilience planning, too.

Increased public expectation for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) transparency.

Stakeholder scrutiny on social factors, particularly governance and equity, is intensifying, moving beyond mere compliance to a core risk-management issue. BNS is well-regarded in this space, holding S&P Global's Top ESG score among North American banks, rated 73/100 as of December 2024, and maintains an AAA rating by MSCI ESG. But the pressure is mounting.

In March 2025, the bank released its 2024 Sustainability Report, a necessary step for transparent reporting. However, a key social risk highlighted in the 2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM) proxy season was the shareholder push for a third-party racial equity audit. This kind of social challenge-demonstrating measurable equity outcomes-is defintely a near-term risk to manage, especially as global regulations like the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) demand more rigorous, auditable ESG data for 2025 performance.

High digital banking adoption rates among younger customers across all markets.

The shift to digital is now the default, not an option. In Canada, 47% of customers, primarily young adults, use online banking as their primary method, and 70% use app-based banking. Globally, 89% of users engaged with mobile or online banking in 2025. The core of the challenge is experience quality, not just availability; 84% of digital banking consumers choose a provider based on the quality of the digital experience.

In BNS's key markets, this trend is critical for customer acquisition. Over 80% of neobank users-the competitive threat-are under 40, demonstrating a clear preference for mobile-first services. This means BNS must ensure its digital channels are not just functional, but best-in-class to retain younger, mobile-native audiences.

• North American fintech usage reached 74% in the U.S. and 69% in Canada in Q1 2025.
• Neobanks are outperforming traditional banks in relevance and personalization perception.
• Seamless digital onboarding, taking less than five minutes, is crucial to convert users.

Growing demand for financial inclusion services in Latin American regions.

Financial inclusion in Latin America remains a significant growth opportunity, especially as BNS focuses its International Banking segment. The region's overall financial inclusion index rose to 47.6 points in 2024, up from 38.2 in 2021, showing rapid progress. Despite this, about 200 million people are still unbanked or underbanked.

This market segment is directly contributing to BNS's bottom line. The International Banking division generated adjusted earnings of $719 million in Q2 2025, a 7% year-over-year increase, reflecting solid revenue generation. The core of the inclusion challenge is access, with a persistent gender gap where 74% of men have a financial account compared to 66% of women in 2024, an 8 percentage point disparity. Addressing this gap through targeted microfinance and digital products is a clear growth lever.

The Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) - PESTLE Analysis: Technological factors

Significant investment in cloud migration to enhance data analytics and efficiency.

You can't compete in modern banking with legacy infrastructure; it's too slow and too expensive. The Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) has made a massive, non-negotiable commitment to cloud migration, partnering with Google Cloud to accelerate this shift. Their goal is to move the majority of the bank's information and systems to the cloud within a three-year window, which is an aggressive timeline for a bank of this size. This move is less about cost-cutting and more about unlocking advanced data analytics, which is the engine for personalized customer experiences and better risk management.

Here's the quick math: BNS reported a technology spend of $2.3 billion in 2024, a 10% year-over-year increase, signaling a sustained, high-level investment into 2025. This capital is the foundation for scaling their operations and is a prerequisite for deploying transformative technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI). Moving to the cloud is simply indispensable for the resilience and safe operation of a global financial institution.

Implementation of generative AI for customer service and fraud detection systems.

Generative AI (GenAI) is the new battleground, and BNS is deploying it across two critical, high-volume areas: customer service and fraud detection. By using platforms like Google Cloud's Vertex AI and Contact Center AI (CCAI), BNS is building out AI agents to handle routine interactions and improve the speed of complex inquiries. This is a clear efficiency play.

To be fair, the cost savings are compelling. Industry data for 2025 shows that a Generative AI chatbot interaction costs between $0.50-$0.70, a fraction of the cost of a human agent who costs about $19.50/hour. Furthermore, in the fight against financial crime, GenAI is a critical defense mechanism. Banks are actively deploying cloud-native AI agents for:

• Customer Service: 75% of banks are deploying AI agents here.
• Fraud Detection: 64% of banks are deploying AI agents here.
• Loan Processing: 61% of banks are deploying AI agents here.

The bank is using this technology to expedite fraud investigations, with over 90% of financial institutions now using AI to detect new tactics in real-time, which is essential as fraudsters increasingly use GenAI themselves.

Competition from Financial Technology (FinTech) firms requires faster digital product launches.

The rise of Financial Technology (FinTech) firms in Canada and its core International Banking markets is a constant pressure point. Companies like Wealthsimple, which dominates online investment management, and neobanks like Koho, which offer mobile-first banking with budgeting tools, force BNS to innovate faster. You have to move at the speed of the startup, not the speed of the incumbent.

BNS's strategy is two-fold: partner and build. They engage with FinTech accelerators like NXTP Labs in Latin America to gain early visibility into transformative trends. On the product side, they are launching new, targeted digital solutions. A great example is their August 2025 digital integration of Nova Credit, making BNS the first Canadian bank to embed this capability directly into its digital credit card application process. This allows newcomers to Canada to use their international credit history to qualify for higher credit limits, a move that directly addresses a key underserved market segment with a fast, digital solution.

Cybersecurity spending increased to protect cross-border data flows.

With BNS's unique international footprint-with approximately 40% of its revenue coming from Latin America and the Caribbean-the risk associated with cross-border data flows is significantly higher. This is why cybersecurity is no longer just an IT cost; it's a core business risk.

The bank's partnership with Google Cloud explicitly includes strengthening bank security. The increased technology budget, which saw a 10% jump leading into the 2025 fiscal year, directly funds this defense. This spending is crucial for protecting the vast amount of client data, especially as the bank moves more systems to the cloud. You can't afford a breach when you operate across multiple regulatory jurisdictions; the reputational and financial costs are simply too high. Security infrastructure is defintely seeing one of the largest spending increases in the 2025 IT budgets across the financial sector.

Finance: Track the quarterly technology capital expenditure against the $2.3 billion baseline to ensure cloud and AI deployment stays on schedule.

The Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) - PESTLE Analysis: Legal factors

Stricter anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance globally.

The global regulatory environment for Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing continues its aggressive, data-driven crackdown, meaning BNS must invest heavily to keep up. By mid-2025, worldwide regulators had already imposed over $6 billion in AML fines, signaling a historic high in enforcement intensity.

For a global bank like The Bank of Nova Scotia, which operates extensively in Latin America, this means continuously upgrading its systems and training. The bank has been actively involved in the Canadian regime, co-chairing the Public-Private Collaboration Steering Committee with FINTRAC, which aims to enhance information sharing and leverage technology for better detection. Still, the cost of compliance is a major operational drag. In the third quarter of 2025, BNS's non-interest expenses were $5.09 billion year-to-date, a 3% increase year-over-year, due in part to increased project spend supporting key strategic and regulatory initiatives.

The risk isn't just fines; it's reputational damage and operational disruption. Though the U.S. Federal Reserve ended its 2015 AML enforcement action against BNS in 2023, the pressure remains high. To be fair, you have to be proactive now, not reactive. The sheer volume and complexity of cross-border transactions mean that any failure in the Know Your Customer (KYC) process or transaction monitoring can lead to massive penalties, like the US$22.5 million fine BNS faced in 2023 for employees' use of unapproved communication methods like WhatsApp.

Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) maintains high capital adequacy requirements.

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) maintains a deliberately stringent capital regime for Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs) like The Bank of Nova Scotia, ensuring they have a robust buffer against economic shocks. This is a clear legal requirement that limits the capital available for share buybacks or aggressive lending. OSFI maintained the Domestic Stability Buffer (DSB) at 3.5% of total risk-weighted assets in its June 2025 announcement, which directly impacts the minimum Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio.

The total minimum regulatory CET1 ratio for BNS, including the 1.0% D-SIB surcharge and the 3.5% DSB, is 11.5%. The good news is BNS is well-capitalized, which gives them a competitive advantage over less stable international peers. Their actual CET1 ratio as of July 31, 2025 (Q3 2025) stood at a strong 13.3%, which is a 180 basis point operating buffer above the required minimum.

Here's the quick math on the minimums:

Data privacy laws (like Canada's Consumer Privacy Protection Act) increase compliance costs.

The push for greater data control and consumer protection is creating a new wave of compliance costs. While the federal government's attempt to pass the Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CPPA) has faced delays, the core principles of data mobility and enhanced consumer rights are moving forward through other regulatory channels.

The most immediate and concrete compliance deadlines for BNS in 2025 relate to the Retail Payment Activities Act (RPAA). The compliance obligations for Payment Service Providers (PSPs) under the RPAA take effect on September 8, 2025. This mandates new, prescriptive requirements for operational risk management, incident response, and ensuring the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of payment services.

Also, the Financial Consumer Protection Framework Regulations are being amended to cap Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF) fees for personal deposit accounts at a maximum of $10, effective March 12, 2026. This is a direct hit to non-interest revenue, forcing the bank to adjust its fee structure and technology to enforce the new cap and exceptions.

New international tax regulations affect transfer pricing for global operations.

As a bank with a significant international footprint, especially in Latin America, BNS is highly exposed to shifting international tax rules, particularly those governing transfer pricing (the pricing of transactions between related entities across borders).

The 2025 Canadian federal budget introduced significant changes to the country's transfer pricing rules, effective for taxation years/fiscal periods commencing after November 4, 2025. The government is tightening the rules, but also increasing the penalty threshold for non-compliance to the lesser of $10 million and 10% of the taxpayer's gross revenues. This means the penalty for getting transfer pricing wrong is now defintely higher, requiring more sophisticated internal documentation and governance.

Global initiatives like the OECD's Pillar Two-which aims to impose a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15%-also add complexity. While BNS's effective tax rate is subject to many factors, the continuous evolution of these international tax frameworks creates a persistent, high-stakes risk for its Global Banking and Markets segment, which saw a 29% year-over-year earnings surge in Q3 2025.

• Monitor new transfer pricing documentation requirements.
• Assess impact of the $10 million penalty threshold increase.
• Track global Pillar Two implementation for minimum tax implications.

The Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) - PESTLE Analysis: Environmental factors

You're looking at The Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) in 2025, and the environmental landscape isn't just about PR anymore; it's a hard-dollar risk and opportunity set. The core takeaway is that BNS is on track to meet its near-term financing mobilization goals, but it still faces significant investor pressure over its high-carbon lending portfolio.

The bank's strategic response is clear: lean into climate-related finance while refining its risk models to manage physical threats to its vast, geographically dispersed asset base. This is a classic financial transition challenge-you have to fund the new economy while managing the slow, complex decline of the old one.

Pressure to reduce financed emissions from high-carbon sectors like oil and gas

The pressure on BNS to reduce its financed emissions-the Scope 3 emissions (indirect emissions) linked to its lending-is intense and growing. While the bank has a net-zero goal for 2050, its interim 2030 targets for high-carbon sectors like Oil and Gas focus on emissions intensity (emissions per unit of output), not absolute emissions reduction. This approach is a key point of contention for activist shareholders.

Honestly, the sheer scale of their exposure is what matters to a financial analyst. For context, in 2022, the bank's financing of fossil fuels saw a massive jump of 87%, or $14 billion, bringing the total to a staggering $30 billion. That absolute number shows the size of the transition challenge they face. They must now engage clients on credible transition plans to meet their 2030 interim intensity reduction goals, or risk significant counterparty and stranded asset risk.

Mandates for climate-related financial disclosures (TCFD, ISSB) are increasing

For years, BNS has used the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations, providing climate-related disclosures since its fiscal 2018 reporting cycle. But in 2025, the game is changing with the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) standards (IFRS S1 and IFRS S2) beginning to take hold globally.

The ISSB framework is effectively the new global baseline, building on TCFD but demanding more rigor and comparability, especially around Scope 3 emissions. This shift means BNS must be prepared to integrate these new standards into its financial reporting cycle, which is a massive undertaking for a bank with approximately $1.4 trillion in assets as of January 31, 2025. The regulatory trend is defintely moving from voluntary to mandatory, requiring the bank to treat climate data with the same discipline as core financial data.

• TCFD: Bank has aligned disclosures since fiscal 2018.
• ISSB: New global standards (IFRS S1/S2) are launching, requiring more comprehensive, finance-linked disclosures in 2025.
• Risk: Failure to adapt exposes BNS to regulatory fines and investor skepticism.

Physical climate risk affecting branch and data center resilience in coastal areas

Physical climate risk-think hurricanes, floods, and sea-level rise-is a material risk that directly impacts BNS's operational resilience. The bank's footprint is global, especially across the Caribbean and Latin America, where coastal operations are highly vulnerable. A major storm can knock out a branch, a call center, or a data center, disrupting services and incurring massive repair costs.

BNS is incorporating these physical risks into its operational assessments to protect its assets, which include a large network of operational real estate: offices, branches, ATMs, and data centers. They are actively using climate risk modeling to project the impacts of physical and transition risks across their lending portfolios at short, medium, and long-term horizons. This is a necessary step, and their research on how communities rebound after natural disasters shows they are taking the threat seriously.

Here's the quick math: protecting a global network of physical assets against increasing climate volatility requires continuous, multi-million-dollar capital expenditure on resilience upgrades. You can't just insure your way out of this; you have to engineer your way out.

Green bond issuance strategy to fund sustainable projects and meet investor demand

The opportunity side of the environmental equation for BNS is its role in financing the transition. This is where the bank is showing its commitment with hard numbers. BNS has a massive, public target to provide CAD $350 billion in climate-related finance by 2030. Critically, they also committed to mobilizing $100 billion by the end of 2025 to reduce the impacts of climate change, covering lending, investing, and advisory services.

To fund this, BNS is a major issuer in the sustainable debt market. In a key move, they issued a CAD $1.25 billion (approximately $870 million USD) sustainability bond after updating their framework to allow proceeds to be allocated to new categories like nuclear energy and the circular economy. This issuance was a huge success, receiving a record order book for a Canadian dollar issuance at CAD $4.7 billion. This demand clearly shows that investors are ready and willing to fund the bank's green strategy.

The table below summarizes their recent sustainable issuance activity, which is a clear signal of their market-facing strategy to meet this demand.

Next step: Risk Management needs to quantify the dollar value of assets exposed to a 1-in-100-year flood event in their top five coastal markets by the end of the quarter.