Mr. Mark Phillips reports

SCOTIA ITRADE ANNOUNCES CANADA'S FIRST SUSTAINABLE INVESTING TOOLS FOR DIRECT INVESTORS

Bank of Nova Scotia's Scotia iTrade has released Canada's first sustainable investing tools for direct investors. The new tools provide detailed environmental, social and governance (ESG) data, which look at individual companies' corporate practices.

Canadian direct investors consider many factors when making investment decisions. ESG factors are becoming increasingly recognized as issues that could impact long-term risk and return on investments. Until now, this type of information has been largely limited to institutional investors and portfolio managers. With the launch of the new Scotia iTrade sustainable investing tools, Canadian direct investors will be able to do their own sustainability research, helping them make investment decisions that are more aligned with their personal values using the Scotia iTrade platform.

"Scotia iTrade is excited to be the first in Canada to offer direct investors the ability to make more informed investment decisions through research on environmental, social and governance data available on our platform," said Mark Phillips, managing director, operations and product strategy, Scotia iTrade. "For the first time, retail clients in Canada will have exclusive access to ESG insights and information using our new Scotia iTrade sustainable investing research tools."

The ESG research and ratings underpinning Scotia iTrade's sustainable investing tools are provided by Sustainalytics, a global independent provider of ESG research and ratings to asset owners and investment managers. Sustainalytics' research can help retail investors to better understand the ESG issues affecting companies, allowing them to refine their selection to better align with their values or mitigate potential risks. The sustainable investing tools also enable investors to have a holistic view of a company and easily identify ESG leaders and laggards within an industry group.

"Increasingly, retail investors are seeking more information on how corporations are managing ESG issues," said Michael Jantzi, chief executive officer of Sustainalytics. "With the Scotia iTrade's sustainable investing tools, investors now have greater transparency into how companies are addressing these critical issues. Sustainalytics is proud to work with Scotia iTrade to bring this information to retail investors and to help them raise further awareness of responsible investing."

About Scotia iTrade

Scotia iTrade is Scotiabank's on-line brokerage service. At Scotia iTrade, direct investors can choose from a range of trading platforms and benefit from low commissions, a variety of on-line tools and resources, as well as investor education customized by skill level.

About Bank of Nova Scotia

Scotiabank is Canada's international bank and a leading financial services provider in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean and Central America, and Asia Pacific with a team of more than 88,000 employees and assets of $887-billion (as at Jan. 31, 2017).