B2 | RE P O RT O N BUS I N ES S G THE GLOBE AND M AIL | TUESDAY , AP R IL 7, 2020

RBC launches more services Willis: Business

to help hardest-hit clients
Bank has retrained about 200
staff to help create tailored
relief plans for customers
dealing with financial hardship
as a result of the pandemic
JAMES BRADSHAW
BANKING REPORTER
Royal Bank of Canada has retrained hun-
dreds of staff to build custom financial re-
lief plans for personal banking clients who
are in the most severe financial stress
caused by the economic fallout from the
new coronavirus.
In mid-March, the country’s largest
banks hastily rolled out programs allowing
customers who have lost jobs or income to
defer payments on mortgages and other
loans for up to six months. They built self-
serve online portals to take applications for
relief to automate as many approvals as
possible. So far, RBC has processed more
than 250,000 requests for deferrals.
But the bank is now turning its attention
to its next phase of customer support. Over
the past two weeks, RBC has retrained
around 200 staff who normally adjudicate
new loan applications and redeployed
them to help create tailored relief plans for
clients who have been hit hardest by the
crisis. The plans are designed to be a second
tier of support for clients who were already
struggling when the COVID-19 crisis struck,
or who now expect their financial hard-
Legault: Premier floats idea of using hydro power
to warm Quebec’s indoor greenhouses in winter
FROM B1
The Premier is even evoking the possibil-
ity of using the province’s plentiful hydro
power to warm indoor greenhouses in the
winter and grow fruit and vegetables all
year round instead of importing them.
“We want to be able to produce more
locally,” Mr. Legault said Friday. “We’ll
need to think about the entire food chain
to ensure that if there were another crisis
that we’d be autonomous.”
Quebec’s determination to cement its
own defences and boost its future eco-
nomic prospects has already been likened
by some commentators to a similar na-
tionalism effort in the 1960s that ushered
in the Quiet Revolution. Not since that
time has former premier Jean Lesage’s
campaign slogan “Maître chez nous”
(Masters in our own house) become as
pertinent as a societal objective, Quebe-
cor media columnist Michel Girard said.
The government is also thinking about
the demand side of the equation, trying to
stimulate Quebeckers’ appetite for locally-
made products in order to cut their re-
liance on goods made outside its borders.
On Sunday Quebec announced a new
non-profit project called Le Panier Bleu
(blue basket), which is at the moment a
website-accessed inventory of thousands
of Quebec companies that provide local-
ly-made products and services. The pro-
ject is being led by several retail-sector
veterans, including former Lowe’s Canada
chief executive officer Sylvain Prud-
’homme.
With three million visits in less than 24
since the website went live and 1,170 busi-
nesses listed, the initiative is proving the
propensity of Quebeckers to support their
own, said Charles de Brabant, executive
director of McGill University’s Bensadoun
School of Retail Management. He com-
pared the effort to the online marketplace
created by China’s Alibaba Group, which
has proven to be a major employment
generator in that country since its launch
in 1999.
For weeks, Quebec has led the country
in the number of confirmed COVID-19
cases, with 533 people hospitalized and 121
deaths as of Monday. It has also put in
community
seems ready
for radical fixes
ships could last longer than six months. with dwindling cash flows before the prob-
The individual plans are akin to what lem becomes acute. “There’s an awful lot of
to effects
banks offer in normal times, on a much data in there,” Mr. McLaughlin said. “It’s
smaller scale, to clients suffering from job about giving [account managers] a really
of COVID-19
losses, illnesses, more regional economic curated view of who’s in the most distress.”
downturns or natural disasters. Measures Efforts to roll out relief programs have FROM B1
made available include refinancing and been complicated by the large numbers of
restructuring debt, extending mortgage bank staff working remotely, and extra “This ‘return to work’ process
amortization periods or granting relief on measures put in place at branches that could be accelerated if federal,
interest rates. “That requires a more skilled have stayed open to meet health guide- state and local governments
adviser, it requires more lines. About 77,000 of RBC’s make tests widely available that
time, more information from 85,000 employees are work- allow people to certify that they
the client,” Neil McLaughlin, As economic ing from home. But 9,000 have contracted and recovered
head of personal and com- staff are still in branches, from the disease, have the neces-
mercial banking, said. conditions where the number of clients sary antibodies to prevent them
The volume of requests for deteriorate and job entering is controlled, plexi- from getting sick again and are
relief that flooded in to RBC losses mount, glass screens are being in- not infectious to anyone,” Mr. Di-
as the coronavirus crisis has RBC has been stalled, and deep cleaning is mon said.
escalated has “started to level happening twice as often. Dave McKay also rolled out a
off,” he said, but RBC expects reaching out to more Another 5,600 staff from few lines on Monday more typi-
another surge to come. “I do clients before they call centres and core oper- cally heard from a character on
think there will be another call the bank for ations are working remotely, Grey’s Anatomy rather than Royal
wave of clients looking to help. Those calls but about 15 per cent of staff Bank of Canada’s CEO.
come back based on the dura- in those areas still have to “We will need to invest aggres-
tion of the lockdown and the are up 40 per cent come in to work. Two RBC sively in mass testing for CO-
social-distancing measures,” compared with employees tested positive for VID-19 and adopt new approach-
he said. a year ago. COVID-19 at the bank’s es to monitoring,” Mr. McKay said
“Where do we go from Meadowvale office building in an online essay. Again, there
here? That’s something I think we’re prob- in Mississauga, but Mr. McLaughlin said the was a call to get children back in
ably still working through,” he added. bank has learned lessons from that experi- schools and workers back at their
“What does it feel like two months from ence. jobs. Mr. McKay said: “We will
now and three months from now?” “On the operations side, we needed to need to lay out plans for re-en-
As economic conditions deteriorate and make sure we could thin out those environ- gagement, to determine which
job losses mount, RBC has been reaching ments,” he said. “It did underscore that so- parts of society can open up first
out to more clients before they call the cial distancing is going to be part of the so- and how we can approach that
bank for help. Those calls are up 40 per cent lution and we needed to pull that lever.” narrow door without sparking a
compared with a year ago. And the bank is social stampede.”
starting to use artificial intelligence and to ROYAL BANK OF CANADA (RY) The CEOs’ bedside manner fea-
mine data from call centres to flag clients CLOSE: $85.90, UP $3.82 tures refreshingly brutal honesty.
“This quarter alone will likely see
the biggest economic decline any
of us have witnessed, with job
losses and business closings,” Mr.
McKay said. “Many of us are now
recognizing we are unlikely to see
a V-shaped economic recovery, as
we were hoping just a few weeks
ago.”
JPMorgan is running stress
tests to ensure the bank can
weather a deep recession, with a
35-per-cent drop in U.S. GDP
and 14-per-cent unemployment
rates that persist through the
end of the year. In an observation
that is bound to ruffle feathers at
the White House, Mr. Dimon
said: “As a nation, we were clear-
ly not equipped for this global
pandemic, and the consequenc-
es have been devastating.”
In coming weeks and months,
true leaders in business have an
opportunity to follow the lead of
microbiologists and medical pro-
fessionals by helping individuals
and businesses recover from the
impact of COVID-19.
There’s already evidence the
business crowd is ready for radi-
cal cures.
Mr. McKay, whose bank has
prospered from serving global
corporate clients, said Canada
needs to revisit the policies that
let foreign players dominate key
domestic sectors such as tech,
A woman at a children’s rehabilitation centre stacks visors in Montreal on Thursday. About pharmaceuticals and manufac-
80 Quebec companies have expressed an ability and willingness to manufacture protective turing.
equipment, the province’s Economy Minister says. PAUL CHIASSON/THE CANADIAN PRESS “Our governments, leading en-
terprises and academic institu-
place among the continent’s strictest so- Quebec’s chief exports by dollar value tions need to determine how to
cial-distancing measures, extending a are aircraft and aircraft engines, alumi- best develop and protect more re-
shutdown of non-essential businesses to num and iron ores. Among its biggest im- silient Canadian supply chains,”
May 4. ports are crude oil, light trucks and sport the RBC boss said. “Of course, a
About 80 Quebec companies have ex- utility vehicles. The United States is by far more self-reliant Canada could
pressed an ability and willingness to man- its biggest trading partner. become a more expensive Cana-
ufacture protective equipment and at “You can imagine that some of our ex- da.”
least one will be tapped to make masks ports will face a bit more protectionism in When Royal Bank’s chief exec-
permanently, said Quebec Economy Min- coming years,” Mr. Legault said. “We’re go- utive is making a case for protec-
ister Pierre Fitzgibbon. The government is ing to need to figure out how we can help tionist policies, it’s clear the
also working with pharmaceutical com- our local entrepreneurs make products winds of change are blowing. CE-
panies in the provinces to make sure Que- that we are currently importing in order Os see the need to match the
beckers’ medication needs can also be to keep our trade balance as even as we medical profession in dealing
met by local producers, he said. can.” with COVID-19 fallout with
Quebec currently has a $20-billion an- Quebec estimates it has spent $18-bil- “speed and scale,” as Mr. McKay
nual trade deficit, meaning it imports lion to fight the pandemic, which includes put it.
more goods than it exports. The Premier financial aide for business and the cost of “We will need to move faster
says the gap will probably grow, accelerat- buying medical equipment. The number than we may be comfortable with
ed by current events, meaning the prov- represents between 4 and 5 per cent of its and strive for a scale that’s bold
ince has to realign its economy internally. gross domestic product. and ambitious.”

Oil: Federal source says Ottawa is planning an energy summit with U.S., Mexico
FROM B1
The source added that the Cana-
dian government sees the G20 as
the most promising venue to re-
solve the current oil crisis. The
Globe and Mail has agreed not to
name the source because they
weren’t authorized to comment
publicly.
Ian Cameron, spokesman for
Mr. O’Regan, said he could not
confirm the minister’s schedule.
“This is a fast moving situation
that continues to develop rapidly
and we are working closely with
international partners and the
provinces to find possible solu-
tions to protect the interests of
Canadians,” he said.
The G20 event is expected to
follow another meeting among
members of OPEC+, which in-
cludes the cartel members as well
as Russia, Mexico and others.
Those talks are now expected to
proceed on Thursday after initial
plans to hold it Monday were up-
ended against a backdrop of last-
minute squabbling.
Saudi Arabia has called on oth-
er countries, including Canada, to
contribute with production
curbs.
The extended timetable for
any possible deal pressured oil
prices on Monday. West Texas In-
termediate crude fell 8 per cent to
settle at US$26.08 a barrel. WTI is
down nearly 60 per cent in three
months.
The oil price war could not
have come at a worse time for the
oil industry and economies of
producer countries, including
Canada, the United States, Brazil
and Norway, as well as the Orga-
nization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries. With transport grind-
ing nearly to a halt amid restric-
tions to control the spread of CO-
VID-19, demand for fuel has tum-
bled by millions of barrels a day.
The government source said
plans were also under way for an
energy summit including Cana-
The G20 event is
expected to follow
another meeting among
members of OPEC+,
which includes the cartel
members as well as
Russia, Mexico and
others. Those talks
are now expected
to proceed on Thursday.
da, the United States and Mexico.
Canada’s energy sector has
been pummelled by prices for oil
sands-derived crude that are well
below any company’s ability to
break even and the fear that avail-
able storage capacity could be fil-
led up before the month is out.
This would force more produc-
tion to be shut off. Analysts have
pegged the output that is now of-
fline at around 700,000 barrels a
day, and some have said that
number could surpass one mil-
lion.
All eyes are on Saudi Arabia
and Russia, which must make
meaningful cuts in output for any
deal to have an effect on the mar-
ket. A major wild card is the U.S.,
after President Donald Trump last
week suggested the two could re-
duce production by 10 million to
15 million barrels a day. The Unit-
ed States has not committed to
formal production cuts, though
its industry has been shutting in
output for economic reasons.
Helima Croft, global head of
commodity strategy with RBC
Capital Markets, said the key
change this week is Russia’s ap-
parent willingness to consider
production cuts. The test at the
meeting will be what the U.S. will
bring to the table. Another ques-
tion is whether Russia and the
Saudis are willing to accept as a
contribution the cuts the U.S. in-
dustry is already making, rather
than mandated curtailment.
“This is forcing policy makers
to decide – what do you really
want? You can’t have everything.
You can’t have higher prices, and
potentially maintain your entire
sanctions architecture on Russia,
and let the free market decide at
this point,” she said.
With the U.S. reluctant to par-
ticipate in OPEC+ discussions,
getting the G20 involved is a “ge-
nius” way to continue dialogue
and build consensus, even if suc-
cess is not guaranteed, Ms. Croft
said.