EQB Inc. (EQB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and welcome to the Equitable Group Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Chairman, David LeGresley. Sir, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much. Good morning, and thank you for taking the time to join Equitable's 2021 Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders. My name is David LeGresley, I'm Chair of the Board and a Director of Equitable Group, the parent company of Equitable Bank. Andrew Moor, our President and CEO; Chadwick Westlake, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Mike Mignardi, the Bank's Vice President and General Counsel; and Linda Dwyer, our Corporate Secretary, are also participating. In the event of a telecom malfunction, Andrew will step into chair of the meeting. Our remarks today are accompanied by a slide deck, and it should be relatively easy to follow along. We are currently on Slide 3. At this virtual -- as this virtual meeting at test, technology has never been more essential to the conduct of business. Canada's challenge for bank continues to make good use of market-leading technology in all facets of operations, and our cloud-based systems have been instrumental in providing services to our customers during the pandemic. Last year, we came together for our first virtual AGM. It was only a few weeks after the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. I'm not sure any of us thought we would still be in lockdown in 2021, nor did we envision how resilient Canada would be in the face of border closures and societal disruption. This simply underscores the fact that there is no rule book for a health crisis of this magnitude. For those struggling with health issues, loss of loved ones and business shutdowns, we extend our heartfelt sympathies. Just as COVID-19 has taken a toll in society in general, it has affected the bank's employees and their families. I would like to acknowledge how much we appreciate their sacrifices during this period to look after their families while still managing to deliver outstanding results for our stakeholders. We have a great team of almost 1,000 challengers now, as we call our employees, and they make all the difference. With confidence, I can speak for everyone to say how much we hope to see a return to some type of normal in the world as soon as possible. A special thank you to Andrew and Jody Sperling, the Bank's SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer, for implementing our business continuity plan so effectively. Pandemics [indiscernible] so being prepared and being agile will pay huge dividends as demonstrated this past year. The pandemic tested the business IQ of every management team. We're very fortunate that [indiscernible] is comprised of smart and invested [indiscernible]. We know how to deal with whatever challenges get thrown their way. Despite all the disruptions, they managed to lead the bank to record earnings, record loan originations as well as record growth in the number of customers and deposits at Equitable Bank. The Board is very proud of how the team responded to the challenges, including the bank's effort to help those customers needed additional support. The Board is also very pleased to see our Challenger Bank begin to gain some much deserved profile in the market. [indiscernible] Forbes recognized Equitable as the best bank in Canada. And for the first time, named it to the list of the world's best banks based on a survey of 43,000 customers in 28 countries. This is an impressive showing as the banks were independently rated based on general consumer satisfaction as well as key attributes, trust, fees, digital services and advice. It's taken 50 years of hard work that this award is well-deserved and much appreciated. The capital markets are also coming around to the view that Equitable is more than just a fantastic provider for mortgages for new Canadians and self-employed. With the purpose of creating solutions that enrich the lives of Canadians, Equitable is making a name for itself in commercial and personal banking. With that, market recognition and with record earnings came an all-time high share price, closing at $148 compared just a few days to go. By market cap, Equitable is now Canada's eighth largest Schedule 1 bank. In a more normal environment, record earnings would generate record dividends. As many of you know, OSFI put dividend increases on hold at the outset of the pandemic. But as soon as we can, our goal will be get those dividend increases back on track and in line with the plan we introduced in 2019. Recall that the plan was for the common share dividend to rise at a rate of between 20% and 25% annually for 5 years. This is something we still plan to implement after OSFI allows Canadian banks to resume dividend growth. Equitable has long taken the approach that with our high ROEs we can and should deploy almost all of the free cash flow generated by the bank back into the business. In principle, we still believe that this is the correct approach. And even with those planned dividend increases, our modeling shows the payout ratio would still be under 25%, well below the payout ratios of other Canadian banks. Excellence in governance is one of the several cornerstones of your Board's approach to corporate oversight. In serving as Board Chair since 2014, I'm very pleased with our track record in this regard. Excellence in governance involves continuous improvement, and I'm very pleased to report that in spite of the limitations brought on by the pandemic, progress continued in 2020 with the addition of 2 very talented women to your Board, Diane Giard and Yongah Kim. They bring complementary skills and important new perspectives to our deliberations. This also brings to 5 the number of female directors who are serving you, which represents 45% of the Board. Equity, diversity, inclusion are all critically important to your Board, to the bank and to all of Canada. Our legacy of strong governance owes much to a family by the name of Beutel. Since 1994, Eric Beutel has been a guiding force in the development of the bank you see today. Eric retires at this meeting, but not before receiving our utmost thanks for 27 years, outstanding years, of service and many contributions to all stakeholders. If I could, I would signal a virtual standing ovation for Eric that is richly deserved. I also thank the members of our Board, each of whom is also participating remotely for your deep engagement and commitment to all Equitable stakeholders. Much as the pandemic has required agility from our nearly 1,000 employees, your directors also stepped up to the plate during this pandemic and participated in numerous video calls on very short notice to offer insights to management and to ensure that the business interruption plan was being implemented as designed. The E, the S and the G are all important to us. I'm pleased to say that thanks to our branchless banking model, the bank has a very small environmental footprint. We are always open to discussions with our shareholders on ESG matters. You may reach us by using the contact information on our website, equitablebank.ca. With that, we now begin the formal business of the meeting. In accordance with Equitable's Bylaws, as Chair of the Board, I will act as Chair of this meeting; and Linda Dwyer, Equitable's Corporate Secretary, will act as Secretary. I appoint Matt Gemmell of Computershare Investor Services, Inc. to act as Scrutineer. I've received proof that notice has been duly given and the meeting materials were mailed to shareholders in compliance with applicable securities rules and also made available through notice and access. I've also been provided with a report from the Scrutineer, which states that 59.6% of Equitable's common shares are represented by proxy at this meeting, confirming that a quorum is present. I, therefore, declare that the meeting is properly called and duly constituted for the transaction of business. To facilitate the introduction of motions, Equitable has asked Linda Dwyer to move; and Michael Mignardi, Equitable's Vice President and General Counsel, to second the motions for shareholders' consideration today. The report from the Scrutineer also confirms the votes represented by proxy are sufficient to pass all matters to be voted on today. As a result, and for efficiency, there will be no voting at this meeting unless a shareholder or proxy holder requests otherwise. A copy of the Scrutineer's report with the tabulated results of the proxy vote will be available upon request after the meeting. I will now proceed with the first item of business as set out in the notice of this meeting, which is to receive Equitable's 2020 financial statements and the auditor's report on those statements. Copies of the financial statements were sent to shareholders in advance of this meeting and can be found on our website at equitablebank.ca. I, therefore, declare Equitable's financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2020, together with the auditor's report thereon, to have been received. We will now proceed with the election of directors. The Board has fixed the number of directors to be elected at 11, and I confirm that all nominees are eligible for election. I call upon Linda to read the names of the nominees standing for election and to make the motion for the nomination of directors.

Thank you, David. I nominate each of the director nominees listed in the management information circular to serve as a Director of Equitable until the close of the next annual meeting of shareholders. The nominees for election as directors are: Michael Emory, Susan Ericksen, Diane Giard, Kishore Kapoor, Yongah Kim, David LeGresley, Lynn McDonald, Andrew Moor, Rowan Saunders, Vincenza Sera and Michael Stramaglia.

Thank you, Linda. You'll find information about each of our Director nominees on Page 16 through 21 of the management information circular. I now call upon Michael to second the motion.

Mr. Chair, I second the motion.

Thank you, both. Thank you, Michael. I'm advised by our Scrutineer that the number of shares represented by proxy to be cast in favor of each nominee standing for election is more than sufficient for me to declare, and I do, that the 11 director nominees have each been elected to serve as directors of Equitable until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The next item of business is the appointment of auditors. At the last annual meeting held on May 15, 2020, shareholders reappointed the firm of KPMG LLP as the independent auditor of Equitable for the 2020 financial year. The Board has recommended that KPMG LLP be appointed as auditors of Equitable until the close of the next annual meeting at a remuneration to be fixed by the directors. I now ask Linda to make this motion.

Thank you, David. I move that KPMG LLP be appointed to be auditors of Equitable until the close of the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders at a remuneration to be fixed by the directors.

Thank you, Linda. Michael, would you please second it?

Mr. Chair, I second the motion.

Thank you, again. The report from our Scrutineer states that the number of shares represented by proxy to be cast in favor of the appointment of the auditors is more than sufficient for me to declare, and I do, that KPMG LLP has been reappointed Equitable's auditors until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders and that directors are authorized to fix their remuneration. The next and final item of business today concerns the amendment to Equitable's Bylaw #1. This amendment was made by Equitable's directors on February 22, 2021, to allow the company to hold shareholder meetings in virtual-only format. And in doing so, aligned a bylaw with the provisions of Equitable's governing statute. Details of the amendment can be found on Pages 14 and 15 of the management information circular, with the full text of the amendment on Pages 111 and 112. I now ask Linda for the motion to confirm the amendment.

I move that the amendment to Bylaw #1 made by the Board of Directors on February 22, 2021, and described in the management information circular, the full text of which is included in the amended and restated bylaw #1 attached to the circular, be approved and confirmed.

Thank you, Linda. Michael, would you please second?

Mr. Chair, I second the motion.

Thank you. The report from our Scrutineer indicates that the number of shares represented by proxy to be cast in favor of the resolution approving the bylaw amendment is more than sufficient for me to declare, and I do, that the amendment to Equitable's by law #1 is hereby confirmed. As I mentioned earlier, a copy of the Scrutineer's report with the tabulated results of the proxy vote will be available upon request after the meeting. A detailed report with the final voting results will also be available on SEDAR and posted to Equitable's website as soon as practical after the meeting. I now declare the formal meeting -- the formal part of the meeting terminated. We will have a question-and-answer period shortly. [Operator Instruction] Now it's my pleasure to yield the virtual floor to Andrew Moor. In doing so, I will refer you to Slide 9 and Equitable's caution regarding forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties, including those introduced by the current global COVID-19 pandemic. Now here's Andrew.

Thank you, David. This morning, I'll share our thoughts on the future of the banking industry and Equitable's place in it and conclude with a discussion of ESG. To begin, I think it's important to acknowledge that for all of us 2020 was an incredibly difficult year. In that context, your bank navigated a tricky situation and emerged in great shape. Our employees deserve thanks for the fortitude they showed in running the bank mostly from their homes over the last year. The challenge of providing consistently strong customer service, while dealing with the demands of payment deferrals to customers, juggling childcare and negotiating space to work on the kitchen table is not easy, and our team really stepped up. I'm delighted with how well they did, and even more delighted with the team's attitude. Although we still have some pandemic catalysts across, it certainly seems that we have now passed through the period of maximum stress, and we look forward to better days ahead. As shareholders, the good news is that the pandemic forced change on the banking industry that lets Equitable in a stronger strategic position. A decade ago, I searched the answer to how Equitable could find its place in a market occupied by large players with extensive branch networks and strong brand awareness. Today, by contrast, we are in a fantastic position as a diversified bank with technological leadership, increasing brand equity built in digital channels and where we view anchors of legacy business structures holding us back. It's been over for a number of years that our industry has changed in exciting ways. Ubiquity of digital solutions has moved banking out of the branch and onto the phone. The traditional model where a customer uses a single bank for all of their financial needs -- service needs is breaking down with new competitors and payments, wealth management, cash management and foreign exchange take hold. We welcome this break from the past as a nimble challenger bank. Our industry faces further change, [indiscernible] the Challenger Bank is positioning for it, too. While change is necessarily accompanied by uncertainty, Equitable has the technical capability, management depth and strong capital foundation to find and execute on countless opportunities, a few of which I will profile today. I certainly can see that our team holds distinctive views, I mean least distinctive when the account confines to this industry on the future banking in this country. We are absolute believers in the power of open banking to bring better service to Canadians. Actions by Payments Canada developed the real-time rail to allow nearly instantaneous payments to be made between parties with certainty of value. And the creation of digital identity so Canadians can better navigate the digital economy. That said, public policy on open banking is severely lagging the potential to create a more prosperous Canada. Other countries are already talking about the next evolution in open banking, known as open finance, yet Canada hasn't even adopted the first phase. This needs to change. I would encourage you to review our position papers on this topic available on our website. There is so much emerging opportunity. Our challenge is to ensure we are disciplined enough with our intellectual energy of skilled teams and our capital to what ideas that provide the greatest value for our customers. So far, so good in that journey. The evolution of EQ Bank from a delightfully executed that simple solution to today's richer platform featuring registered accounts, international money transfer, term deposits and more recently, a digital mortgage marketplace, is demonstration of that discipline. To EQ Bank's growth and expansion, we have maintained our vision of transparency and simplicity to deliver what we feel is compelling customer value. Along the way, we have been pioneers in eliminating the artificial barriers between savings and checkings. And we're the first bank in Canada to offer free e-transfers. As David mentioned, this dedication to a vision and approach to serving customers is reflected in Equitable's selection of the best bank in Canada by Forbes. This award is a testament to the success we've had in challenging what's always been done and changing the way people think about banking. I'm just as enthused about our opportunity to help retire Canadians manage their assets through the wealth accumulation phase of their lives. Our reverse mortgage business is really heading its stride, and I'm excited about the work our team is doing in taking it up to the next level. In Q1, this year, our originations were up 426% year-over-year, and we expect Q2 to be even stronger. Similarly, there is huge growth ahead in our CSP business of lending, secured by life insurance policies. Here, we have the ability to deliver deep value to our customers, another business set to thrive. To guarantee Equitable's place in the future of the banking industry, it's necessary for our structured systems and approach to change to meet the demand of growth. 2020 was a watershed year in this regard as we more clearly delineated operations into commercial and personal bank lines. Darren Lorimer brings us deep experience in credit and banking generally to lead the commercial bank, which includes Bennington. Mahima Poddar, and it's her energy and intelligence to lead the personal bank. In 2020, these 2 businesses made a roughly equal contribution to profits. We now have 7 member management committee with a critical IT function headed by Dan Dickinson; Ron Tratch, driving Risk and Compliance Functions; Jody Sperling, spearheading the effort to recruit talent and evolve the organizational structure; and Chadwick, the CFO. These are great people and accomplished leaders, backed by strong teams deep into the organization. My role is changing too as the evolution of the organization has appropriately allowed me more time to think about how the industry is evolving, where Equitable should be playing, building the infrastructure for an ambitious future and ensuring we have the empowered talent we need to get us there. One thing has not changed and will not, I will continue to own the role of camping fantastic customer service because service has been the key to Equitable's success so far and will unlock future possibilities. Service is hard to consistently deliver and is critical to the voice from the CEO's chair is unrelenting in communicating its importance. [indiscernible] we have followed to build shareholder value. 10 years ago, our stock price was $29 per share while today we stand at $147 or so. This works out to a CAGR just shy of 20% over a decade even our most demanding shareholders, and you know who you are, [indiscernible], must be pleased. Along the way, we have found our true purpose as a business, which is to drive change in Canadian banking to enrich people's lives. As we build banking experiences more seamlessly into people's lives, our purpose allows all of us to focus on the things that really matter. Traditional banking has way too much nonsense, rethinking traditional processes into intuitive digital experiences and fair price points makes our society better. Banking is an important industry for the bulk of any society, and Equitable certainly wants to play its part. And our bank has created opportunity for employees. Across the bank, we are seeing young people build businesses from the ground up. In 2013, we started our LDP program, which recruits straight from B. Com programs and rotates recruits through the bank for 2 years before landing them in the business units. Now we here seeing the fruits of that work with energetic smart young people as key players in our single family, decumulation, commercial, specialized finance, digital banking, finance and corporate development departments. We also promote people with the right attitudes and smarts from within. With the result, we have an experienced team and a lot of homegrown talent. We are recognized as one of Canada's top 50 Best Workplaces in 2021 by Great Place to Work Institute, which serves as a proof point that Equitable is a good employer, although the true mark is an awareness that we need to do things to make us better, and that is a journey we're still on. I'll conclude my remarks by talking about our ESG journey. I think our maturity probably reverses -- runs in reverse order of those initials as the bank stands on a really strong governance foundation, which reflects in no small part the efforts of Vincenza Sera, the Chair of the Governance Nominating Committee. Vin is stepping down from that role that I would like to thank her for everything that she has done. The clean bills of health we received from ISS and Glass Lewis are proof points of mature and effective governance structure. We will have, however, a debt of gratitude. Thank you, Vin. On the sustainability front, we are in really good shape too, and I encourage you to review our sustainability report published just last week. The formidable team of Jody Sperling and Shep, our Senior Manager, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, are making inclusion a point of competitive advantage. Talent is hard to find, and being an employer of choice for people from diverse backgrounds and experiences is key to executing on our business objectives. It's, of course, the morally right thing to do, but also a lot more enjoyable than working in narrower cultural confines. In a role of Chair of the Human Resources Committee, Lynn McDonald did provide unwavering support and guidance on sustainability. It's so much easier for the bank to make progress on issues like being actively antiracist, but a key player like Lynn has your back. Sharing the HR Committee of any Board is, in my view, the toughest to any Board positions. People, even CEOs can be unreasonable from time to time. And Lynn masterly navigated these challenges to put us in a stronger position, both on the sustainability file and our HR compensation practices more broadly. One of the downsides of practicing good governance is the Board positions must rotate. So Lynn will be stepping down from a job as Chair of HRC, and we offer our sincere thanks to her for a masterful job. Finally, the amount of work that has mostly has been -- has recently been applied is on the E in ESG. We recognize the challenge of greenhouse gases and global warming and are committed to being a force for change. The bank recently calculated the Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, which totaled 553 tons of CO2 a year. From our research so far, this certainly positions us as a green bank with emissions per dollar revenue far below larger bank branch-based peers. This is unsurprising given our tight real estate footprint and the fact that our systems operate on a cloud architecture, which itself is significantly more energy efficient than traditional server forms. This year will mark a period of determining our Scope 3 emissions and committing to a plan to reduce carbon. We are working closely on this file. Sarah Farano ,our Investor Relations and Finance Manager, is one of our aforementioned LDP grads. Sarah is turning to something of an ESG guru and would love to engage with any stakeholder to gather insights on where they think we should be going with ESG. It comes to a good spot, where we have a great business model destined to deliver values to shareholders in the years ahead, and our mission and sense of purpose and constructive approach to ESG are fit to the times. We do not arrive here by accident. Ongoing conversations with the Board, testing and learning and constantly searching of a better way got us here. In that regard, I, too, would like to thank Eric Beutel for his conscientious effort as a director for 27 years. Eric has always been there to engage with constructive views to challenge our thinking and stress test proposals to make them better. In particular, he most recently served as Chair of the Credit Risk Sub Committee. But from that point to this point, we have never had a loss on the loans he approved, a great track record. While Eric is no longer a director, this is not goodbye as the Beutel family owns 1.8 million shares of the bank, representing an equity interest of 10.6%. I'm sure we'll continue to have lots of contact with Eric as he monitors his investment in the years ahead. I'd like to thank all of our directors for their support during this most challenging year. In that role, I can assure you they do a great job of striking a balance of challenging management to ensure your interest to being looked after while supporting us to find ways to do things better, allowing us to act with confidence as we build Canada's Challenger Bank for everyone's benefit. Thank you for attending today's virtual meeting. With that, I'll hand the floor to Chadwick. Chadwick joined Equitable from Scotiabank last November where he had worked for nearly 20 years, most recently as Executive Vice President. His broad experience of scale is certainly relevant to us. One of his role as the CFO of the Canadian Bank for Scotia, which includes Tangerine our nearest digital competitor. He is a great example of how we've been able to attract first-class talent to fit our ambitious aspirations. Chadwick?

Thank you very much, Andrew, for that kind introduction. And good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's a pleasure to be here. As you've heard, Equitable's purpose is to drive change in Canadian banking to enrich people's lives. We are deliberate in using the word people as it speaks to our philosophy of rewarding everyone who interacts with our bank, customers, partners, employees, the communities where we do business and our shareholders. We've been enriching lives for over 50 years and 17 as a public company. We're making a more concerted effort than ever and for shareholders is reflected in our key metrics of return on equity and earnings as well as total return versus pure banks and the S&P/TSX Composite index, as you can see on Slide 24. Our performance compares favorably to global names like JPMorgan Chase, to large Canadian banks, which we are now becoming more frequently compared to and other global challenger banks, which we'll be compared to even more in the future. To that point, Andrew spoke to the Equitable Bank of the future. And today, I'll share more on our outlook for 2021. As you know, and as shown on Slide 25, Equitable delivered a record first quarter. Because of these results and the continued momentum in the bank, we further increased our growth outlook for 2021. We are experiencing one of the greatest bull runs in the history of the Canadian housing market, and the consumer savings rate of silver lining to the pandemic lockdowns has shot ahead as well. Estimates suggest the pandemic caused Canadians to accumulate an incremental $180 billion in extra savings in 2020. From a macro perspective, while there remains a lot of uncertainty, using guidance from the bank in Canada, we're expecting a more widespread economic recovery to take hold this year, driving GDP ahead by 6.5% from 2020 levels. With the strength in our business model and increasing diversification, Equitable is in a great position to capitalize on current trends. I'll offer a few points on growth and diversification as part of achieving our targets. First, we're diversifying our sources of funding. A key ingredient that didn't exist 5 years ago is EQ Bank. On Slide 26, you can see that EQ Bank had a fantastic first quarter, with deposits up by $1.2 billion in just 3 months and a customer base exceeding 202,000. To this point, we increased our expectations and believe EQ bank deposits may grow by as much as 50% in 2021. Over the next several years, we could expect to see EQ Bank deposits become the biggest component in our deposit funding. In addition, we're expanding on the wholesale side of funding. One example is our deposit note program, which surpassed $1 billion in Q1, with the latest note at the best pricing we've ever achieved. The best is yet to come over the next couple of months with the launch of our more than $1.5 billion covered bond program and our first issuance in Europe of up to EUR 300 million. It will add a tailwind to our cost of funds as we expect the program to come in 50 basis points lower than our GIC funding. This will start to contribute to our performance in 2021 and within a couple of years, we could reduce funding costs by as much as $7.5 million at the current regulatory asset limits on the program. On the other side of the coin, we're also diversifying our uses of funding with a strong growth look. You can see this on Slide 27. We're continuing to take a market leadership position to grow alternative single-family mortgages, with increased guidance up to 12% to 15% in 2021. An expanding area of growth is deploying more funding to the decumulation needs of Canadians, including a goal to grow our reverse mortgage principal by more than 200% in 2021 and by 150% in cash surrender value lines of credit. We have confidence in the balanced growth plan across our main segments of the commercial bank, including in diverse areas, such as specialized finance and equipment leasing. We are also deploying capital to invest in opportunities that will generate more noninterest income through more strategic partnerships, CMHC programs, working on plans for Payment Solutions plus other innovations that Canadians are asking for from Canada's Challenger Bank. All in, we now expect to add as much as $3.4 billion to our book this year, and the vast majority of that will be conventional loans, the earnings engine of the bank. This is meaningful for performance leading into 2022. In terms of additional detail on our business priorities in 2021, I want to share 3 objectives, which you see on Slide 28. Number one, we will deploy capital using our traditional financial discipline to create shareholder value with return on equity remaining our North Star. You've already seen our deployment plans by business line, but steady growth targets and achieving them in a risk-managed way are 2 different things. Rest assured will be as thorough in underwriting loans this year as any other and will not stretch our risk parameters as we grow. This, as our Chair of the Board said this morning, will extend to the resumption of common share dividend increases just as soon as OSFI lifts its industry-wide moratorium. Compared to a midpoint range of 13.5% for CET1, today, we have approximately $108 million or $6.37 per share of excess capital. We'll continue to identify optimal opportunities to deploy this capital in the bank. Otherwise, look forward to returning more of it to you. This excess capital also reduced the ROE, we believe, we've been generating by retaining more of these earnings to the point where in Q1 ROE could have been as high as 18.4% versus 17.1% that we reported. My second point is we will strive to maintain our best-in-class efficiency while we increase investments in innovation. After stalling some spending in the first half of 2020, we're catching back up on key priorities. I would say it's a transition year of scaling and making smart investments in our people, products and technology that position us for even more strength into 2022 and beyond. With these investments, we expect our expenses will be higher in Q2 and Q3 compared to Q1, supporting new product launches, marketing campaigns and growing our team of top talent. In these periods, our efficiency ratio could be at the top end or just above the range of 39% to 41%. But overall, we expect to still land 2021 within our original guidance. Quarters won't always be consistent, just like in Q1, where we performed even better than expected with a 38.2% efficiency ratio. My last point is our focus on achieving a fair valuation for our shareholders. We continue to believe that by many metrics the value of our bank is discounted comparative potential. With the following developments, we have gained momentum over the past 6 months. We have now established Equitable's first Investor Relations team, including with a focus on ESG. We are redeveloping the content and upgrading the quality of our financial reporting. We have more than doubled our goals for investor outreach in 2021, including meeting with investors in the U.S. and Europe to expand ownership and also introduce ourselves to investors who are more familiar with challenger banks. We are also increasing our profile in the analyst community, which is reflected in a more than 50% increase in the consensus target price for Equitable shares over the past 6 months. And for the first time ever, we are now covered by banking equity analyst, which reflects our growth in Evolution as a diversified bank rather than a traditional mortgage lender. I am very proud to serve alongside close to 1,000 other challengers at Equitable Bank. Together, we're empowered, engaged and aligned and driving change in banking to enrich people's lives in 2021, 2022 and for many years to come. Thanks for listening. And now back to our Chair of the Board.

Thanks, Andrew, and Chad. That's fantastic. Now it's time for question period. [Operator Instructions] At our end, we will summarize the question. I will read your name aloud and if applicable, the entity that you represent. As we believe strongly in shareholder engagement, this will respond -- sorry, we'll respond to as many questions as time permits. If your question has already been asked by another shareholder an answer, we will move to the next question. So with that, we're going to just take a second here to compile questions. And I'm going to hand it over to Michael. Michael?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We do have a question. The first question comes in, and I will read it out loud for everyone's benefit. How are you thinking about cyber risk as EQ Bank continues to grow?

Well, that's a very good question and certainly something that's top of mind for all of us. I think to reflect on what we're talking about here, just coming out of the AGM, it starts with good governance. And in fact, we just did a Board education session, the second one of a recent series on cyber risk and how to manage that from a governance perspective at the Board level. Then as we moved through the organization, we look at dashboards at the ERM committee. So Ron Tratch and his team will look at the various cyber risk attitudes of health that they understand in our cyber world. And then finally, and probably, I mean, absolutely, most importantly, is Andrew Vezina and his team and the -- Andrew is the Chief Information Security Officer, is actively engaged in making sure that everything we're doing in the health of our cyber networks are making us operate at a high level. One of the things that we do think that's quite attractive is that -- or one of the things that should give you confidence to shareholders is that we are offering this cloud environment, the Microsoft and Azure Cloud where, to some extent, we get to stand on the shoulders of giants and are able to lean into that just thinking on cyber. So that's a very attractive part of the world -- part of our fundamental architecture. But I think shareholders, you should know, we're very focused on this issue, and I think it's obviously a risk for all financial institutions as the environment changes.

Mr. Chair, that appears to be all the questions.

Okay. If there are no further questions, I will sign off. And by saying thank you for participating and reminding you that our door is always open for shareholder engagement during the year. Goodbye for now, and enjoy the day. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Thank you so much presenters. This concludes today's meeting. You may now disconnect.