MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT AND CEO Chris Fowler
FOCUSED PERFORMANCE DELIVERS STRONG FINANCIAL RESULTS
Our clients continue to choose CWB for a differentiated level of service through specialized expertise, customized solutions, and faster response times relative to our competitors. Our people take the time to understand our clients and their businesses, and work as a united team to provide holistic solutions and advice. In the challenging economic backdrop of 2023 that included persistent inflation, increasing interest rates, lower economic growth, and significant volatility in the global banking industry we delivered overall performance that confirmed the strength and resilience of our strategy as the best full-service bank for business owners in Canada. While the external environment dampened financial results through the first half of the year, we successfully adapted by targeting lending opportunities to optimize returns within a prudent risk appetite and continued to enhance our client
offering while proactively managing our expenses. Our financial performance improved as the year progressed and we continued our trend of low levels of credit losses (figure 3) supported by our secured lending model, prudent underwriting practices, and proactive loan management. We exited the fiscal year with strong earnings momentum, increased capital ratios, and a resilient balance sheet. We will also benefit from the changes we executed late in fiscal 2023 to increase our operational efficiency and redeploy resources to priority activities consistent with our differentiated strategy. We are well positioned to create value for our investors in the year ahead as we continue to win relationships with business owners and their families, follow our prudent and secured lending approach and proactively manage our expenses to drive positive operating leverage.
CWB Financial Group 2023 Annual Report | 3
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