The Group remains one of the largest banking and financial service organizations in Jamaica, with assets of $389 billion and deposits held by the public of $183 billion as at October 31, 2013.

Our growth was largely achieved through retail lending, including mortgages and our commercial deposit portfolios.

Our insurance business line continues to show growth in gross premium income, and the investment business line experienced strong growth in its unit trust and mutual funds as customers sought to diversify their portfolios.

Our growth was achieved within our risk tolerance levels due to strong management and oversight.

Our provision for credit losses as a percentage of total loan portfolio was stable, despite strong loan growth, as a result of increased focus on working with our customers through difficult times as well as strong collection and recovery activities.

Scotia Group is committed to maintaining a solid capital base as we continue to exceed the regulatory capital requirement in all our business lines. We have reinvested 56.7% of our profit into the Group, growing our capital base by $5 billion during the year. This will ensure that we have a strong buffer to withstand market volatility, which gives our valued customers confidence that they are safe with us. A robust capital position also places us in a strategic position to take advantage of future opportunities.

Our strategic priorities are the road map for our continued long-term success and are geared towards leveraging our team’s strengths to meet the complex and dynamic needs of our customers, while generating sustainable and profitable growth across all our business lines.
Over the course of the last year, we have continued to execute well on our four strategic pillars:

1. High Performance Culture

Our high performance culture is a source of competitive advantage and a key driver of our long-term success. During the period, identification and development of our talent source pool continued to be core areas of focus.

2. Sustainable Revenue Growth

The strength of our 2013 results demonstrates our commitment to delivering sustainable and profitable revenue growth. During the period, we continued to build market share in residential mortgages through targeted sales efforts and a series of well executed initiatives designed to increase our share of wallet in this segment.
.
3. Operational Efficiency

We continued to execute our hub strategy to create centers of excellence through the consolidation of key support functions across the Group and drive adoption of our alternative delivery channels which offer our clients more convenient, cost effective and secure ways of doing business with us.

4. Client Intimacy

During the period, we enhanced our service offering to meet the distinct needs of our affluent customer segment through the launch of Premium Banking and laid the groundwork for empowering staff to respond to customer complaints at the initial point of contact.

Our strategy is grounded in our robust risk management culture where risks must be understood, measured and managed. We are confident about our strategic direction and our ability to execute based on our committed team and infrastructure which is supported by the global strength of Scotiabank and the strength of our capital base. BM

Sylvia Chrominska Chair Scotia Group Jamaica Limited