Thursday’s results from TD Bank and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce wrapped up first-quarter earnings week for Canada’s biggest lenders.

Here’s what experts had to say about each of them:

CIBC beats

CIBC reported a profit of $1.73 billion in the first-quarter, as revenue rose to $6.22 billion, up from $5.93 billion a year earlier, the bank said.

Earnings came in at $1.81 per share on an adjusted basis in the quarter that ended on Jan. 31, which was down from $1.94 a year earlier, but significantly higher than the $1.66 per share expected by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Ebrahim Poonawala, head of North American banks research at Bank of America Securities, told BNN Bloomberg that the results show it was a successful quarter for CIBC as revenue trends were better than expected.

Poonawala said the bank has done well to improve the quality of their loan portfolio, particularly in the U.S. commercial real estate space.

“Some of the comments made by management (Thursday) signalled that they have reserved enough to manage through any future losses tied to their office portfolio in the U.S.,” he said in a Thursday interview.

“I think it was a net good quarter, and I think it continues a string of good quarters that management has actually put up over the last year.”

TD exceeds expectations despite regulatory hurdles

TD Bank Group reported a first-quarter profit of $2.82 billion, up from $1.58 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share came in at $2, above the average of $1.94 expected by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Total revenue for the quarter reached $13.7 billion, beating analysts’ forecast of $12.2 billion on strength in its capital markets unit.

The beat comes as the U.S. Department of Justice probes the bank’s deficiencies around anti-money-laundering practices that led to it scrapping its planned acquisition of First Horizon Corp. last year.

But CEO Bharat Masrani said on a Thursday earnings conference call that the bank is “accelerating investments” in its risk and control environment to mitigate future problems.

“In short, we know what the anti-money-laundering issue is and we are making progress in fixing it every day,” he said.

Beats from RBC, National Bank

Royal Bank of Canada and National Bank of Canada reported first-quarter earnings on Wednesday, each topping earnings-per-share estimates.

RBC, Canada’s biggest bank, reported a profit of $3.58 billion, up from $3.13 billion a year earlier, and earnings of $2.85 per share on an adjusted basis, topping the $2.80 average expected by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Poonawala said he’s bullish on RBC’s outlook because of its high-quality management team and potential revenue uptick thanks to its acquisition of HSBC Canada.

“In an environment where revenue growth is going to be challenging for the sector, RBC is going to have synergies tied to the HSBC Canada acquisition that's going to close at the end of March – that should provide some EPS defensibility moving forward,” he said.

National Bank of Canada, the smallest of the “Big 6” banks, also beat expectations, reporting a first-quarter profit of $922 million, up from $876 million a year earlier. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $2.59, topping Bloomberg-surveyed analyst estimates of $2.35.

The results helped push the Montreal-based bank’s shares to an all-time high Wednesday, closing up $2.40, or 2.32 per cent, at $106.07 on the TSX after trading as high as $108.17 during the day, beating a previous intraday high of $105.57 in 2021.

Scotiabank impresses, BMO disappoints

Bank of Montreal went against the trend when it reported its first-quarter earnings on Tuesday, missing revenue and EPS expectations. The bank said it earned $2.56 per share on an adjusted basis, below the $3.02 average estimate of Bloomberg-surveyed analysts.

Despite the earnings miss, Poonawala identified BMO as another Canadian bank he’s bullish on due to their presence in the U.S.

“BMO closed their acquisition of Bank of the West last year… it’s provided them exposure to markets like California,” he said.

“The GDP of California is greater than Canada, if you put that in perspective, so they have a lot of growth runway if they marry strong execution with the opportunity set ahead of them.”

Meanwhile, Scotiabank reported strong revenue growth from its Latin America divisions as it beat first-quarter expectations when it reported results on Tuesday.

The bank reported a net income of $2.20 billion, up from $1.76 billion a year earlier. The lender said it earned $1.69 per share on an adjusted basis, more than the $1.61 expected by analysts.

Jerome Hass, portfolio manager at Lightwater Partners, told BNN Bloomberg that Scotiabank’s results were one of the two most impressive of the Big 6, but he sees it more as a catch-up than outperformance.

“I think the two biggest surprises were CIBC and Bank of Nova Scotia, which ironically, had the worst expectations over the last year or so,” he said.

“So I view it more as a mean-reversion rather than anything – they've kind of caught up with some of their peers.”

Loan-loss provisions

Despite mostly positive results from Canada’s big banks, they all put aside more money to cover bad loans in the first quarter compared to the previous year – a sign they’re still wary of the economic health of their clients.

In total, Canada’s Big 6 banks set aside more than $4 billion in loan-loss provisions in the first quarter, but Hass said the total isn’t as significant as it may seem.

“Everyone signalled that this was going to take place and it has happened, but that's been relatively modest too,” he said.

“I know $4 billion seems like a large amount, but in the context of the banks’ portfolios, it's still pretty benign, and so I don't think there's been too much that's going to change people's perspective on it.”

Hass said that despite the encouraging results from most of Canada’s big banks, he doesn’t think any of them did enough to entice foreign investors who may be looking for opportunities in Canada.

“The people who are going to come in are the marginal buyers, and when you look at the results, I don't think there's anything that really induces them to run out and buy any of the Canadian banks,” he said.

With files from Bloomberg News and The Canadian Press