(May 18 – 10:30 ET) – Royal Bank of Canada is reporting record financial results for the second quarter ended April 30, 2000, driven largely by volumes in the corporate and investment banking and wealth management divisions.

“The credit for this quarter’s tremendous performance once again goes to our employees, who worked very hard to improve our cost competitiveness, grow the business and care for our customers,” said John Cleghorn, chairman and chief executive officer.

Highlights of results are:

• quarterly net income of $562 million, up 30% from a year ago
• fully diluted earnings per share of $1.73, up 38%
• return on common equity (ROE) of 20.3%, up from 15.8% a year ago and ,just above the target range of 17-20%.
• revenue growth of 20%, well in excess of the targeted mid-single digit growth rate, with revenues up 38% in Royal Investment Services and 37% in corporate & investment banking.
• Efficiency ratio of 61.9% (using Canadian GAAP), an improvement from both a year ago and last quarter.
• Six-month net income of $1,077 million (up 24%), fully diluted earnings per share of $3.30 (up 31%), and ROE of 19.4%. The growth rates are over results excluding one-time items in the first half of 1999.

“In the areas of eBusiness and U.S. expansion, we’ve acquired Prism Financial Corporation, one of the leading Internet mortgage originators in the U.S., which recently formed an alliance with American Express to offer mortgages to American Express’ U.S. clients,” said Cleghorn.

“PrimeStreet, our 34%-owned small business loan auction firm in the U.S., and Security First Network Bank have formed alliances with Lending Tree and H&R Block, respectively, to access a larger client base and grow their revenues. Further alliances and strategic acquisitions will be undertaken to expand our business base outside Canada. At the same time, we will continue to focus on our core competencies and exit those businesses that we expect will not generate significant shareholder value over the long term, such as the commercial charge card business that was sold this quarter.”
-IE Staff