Financial Results Overview
Supplied below are the consolidated financial results arising from the operations of the Peoples Group of companies for the fiscal years ended December 31st:
Canada’s economy started strongly in 2023, but stalled as we experienced continuing high interest rates and a slowing global economy that negatively impacted Canadian businesses and households. Despite this challenging economic cycle, Peoples Group continued to maintain strong fundamentals
with a solid capital base, a growing balance of assets under administration and increased investments in technology and talent.
During the year, our recurring earnings streams continued to be strong, but the overall profitability of Peoples Group was impacted by two factors. Firstly, by taking an appropriately reasonable approach, we made large provisions for credit losses in a discontinued asset-backed lending segment. Secondly, we recorded significant amounts of other expenses for retroactive harmonized sales tax measures enacted by the Canadian government.
In 2023, our Assets Under Administration grew $4.2 billion, surpassing a major milestone to $25.5 billion from $21.3 billion. However, the provisions for credit losses and retroactive harmonized sales taxes in other expenses constrained annual net earnings to $5.3 million.
Our Regulatory Capital Ratio remained solid at 15.6% with a corresponding Leverage ratio of 4.5%.
Looking ahead to 2024, the economic environment remains uncertain. However, without the impacts of the negative 2023 non-recurring items, Peoples Group’s strengths have propelled us back toward a solid pattern of growth and strong profitability in Quarter One of 2024 that we anticipate continuing throughout the year.
