The Canada-based group, operating in a variety of regions, including Europe and Asia, said that higher interest margins were partly offset by falls in equities and other major markets last year.

Royal Bank of Canada yesterday said that its wealth management net income, at C$848 million ($623.4 million) for 2022, rose 3 per cent from the earlier year, mainly driven by higher net interest income as global interest rates rose. Larger transaction revenues also boosted the income figure.

However, a fall in average-based client assets last year, as markets fell, negated some of the impact of higher interest margins.

The Toronto/New York-listed group said it logged net income of C$3.2 billion for the quarter ended 31 January 2023, down $881 million or 22 per cent from the prior year. Excluding the specified item for the impact of the Canada Recovery Dividend (CRD) and other tax related adjustments, net income of C$4.3 billion was up 4 per cent from the prior year. Higher earnings in Personal & Commercial Banking, Capital Markets and Wealth Management were partly offset by lower results in Insurance.

RBC said its Q4 results also reflected higher provisions for credit losses.

At the end of 2022, the Common Equity Tier 1 ratio, a standard international measure of a bank’s capital strength, was 12.7 per cent.