Dave McKay told analysts on the company’s second-quarter earnings call Thursday that RBC is adjusting to an “overhang” in employees, after hiring too aggressively in response to staff shortages and the tech industry’s hiring spree in late 2022. Some of those employees will help the transition with its HSBC acquisition, though the company plans to reduce expenses through attrition and slower hiring, McKay said. (The Logic)

Talking point: The firm had expected higher turnover in early 2023, but the wave of tech layoffs took the bank by surprise. “We overshot—overshot by thousands of people,” McKay said. Impacted by higher expenses (salaries were up 20 per cent from last year), RBC reported its net income was down 14 per cent in this quarter from last year, missing analyst expectations following other disappointing results from Big Six banks like TD Bank, Scotiabank and Bank of Montreal. RBC’s intention to slow hiring comes as the bank has asked employees to return to offices up to four days a week, after McKay blamed remote work for a lack of productivity and innovation.