The parent of Equitable Bank has posted strong financial results for the third quarter and vowed to step up the pace of its expansion.
Equitable Group reported third-quarter-record earnings of $3.17, up 19% from $2.67 in Q3 2018.
Deposits were up 16% to $14.9 billion and retail loan principal outstanding reached $17.9 billion, up 23% from a year ago on growth in all retail asset categories.
"From the 88,000 Canadians who have now made EQ Bank their choice for digital banking to the billions of dollars of deposits and assets we've added to the balance sheet over this past year, Equitable is displaying a clear capacity for growth, innovation and service as Canada's Challenger Bank," said Andrew Moor, President and Chief Executive Officer.
The banking group acquired services firm Bennington Financial Corp. earlier this year and was also elevated into the S&P/TSX Composite Index.
Another major milestone was the migration of its banking system to the cloud.
With this migration complete, we are now able to accelerate the pace of new EQ Bank product and service introductions and are better able to support an innovation and partnership agenda suitable for the open banking era. Equitable has never been better positioned to challenge industry conventions and improve the financial lives of Canadians."
