The Financial Post reports in its Thursday edition Bank of Nova Scotia filed with American regulators to offer common shares, preferred shares and debt worth up to $7-billion (U.S.). A Reuters dispatch to the Post quotes Scotiabank, Canada's No. 3 lender, as saying in a U.S. filing that proceeds from the offering would be used for general banking purposes. This was an extension of an existing shelf filing and brought the total securities it could sell under the filing to about $25-billion (U.S.). The bank said earlier this month it was cutting about 1,500 jobs, mainly due to branch closures and changes in its leadership structure, and would take a pretax charge that would reduce fourth-quarter earnings by about 28 Canadian cents per share. The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its shelf offering is used to calculate registration fees. The final amount to be raised could be different. Scotiabank shares closed Wednesday at $68.59, up 20 cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange.