Laurentian Bank is pledging to focus on clients to sustain its growth.

Speaking at the bank’s annual meeting today in Toronto, Henri-Paul Rousseau, the bank’s president and CEO, said that, “Laurentian Bank of Canada is successfully moving forward with a strategy centred on the client. This client-centric strategy is not only the driving force behind the bank’s remarkable performance in 2001 but also the key to its future growth.”

The client-centric approach aims to make services even more accessible and dependable to clients to win their loyalty. “With the successive changes in the regulatory framework and the possibilities offered by the technology boom, clients now enjoy an unprecedented choice when it comes to finding solutions to their credit, investment and payment service needs,” Rousseau explained.

“It is a trend that will only gain momentum, and Laurentian Bank requires a strategy that will enable it both to fully meet the extremely varied needs of its increasingly demanding clients and to help clients simplify the management of their assets by providing sound advice and state-of-the-art tools. In such a context, where the client’s choice rules, the bank has resolutely decided to focus its activities on its clients.”

Rousseau concluded his comments by stating that, “the first quarter results indicate a good start for 2002, a year that will bring several significant challenges.”

He explained that retail banking must contend with an extremely competitive environment and that commercial and corporate banking, which in recent months has felt the impact of the economic slowdown, will have to continue to adapt and take advantage of business opportunities that arise. Although financial markets have begun to rebound, they remain dependent on the economic recovery only just now under way. “In this challenging environment, Laurentian Bank is renewing its commitment to be closer to each of its clients.