Mr. Miguel Uccelli reports

SCOTIABANK COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF 51% OF BANCO CENCOSUD IN PERU

Bank of Nova Scotia has successfully completed the acquisition of 51 per cent of the controlling interest of Banco Cencosud after receiving regulatory approval from Peruvian authorities. Scotiabank and Banco Cencosud will jointly manage the credit card operations and offer other products and services to customers in partnership for 15 years. Scotiabank and Cencosud have similar agreements in Chile and Colombia. With the closing of this acquisition, Scotiabank has become Peru's second-largest credit card issuer.

"Partnering with Cencosud has been a rewarding process, in which we have begun to leverage the potential of the consumer finance business," commented Miguel Uccelli, chief executive officer and country head of Scotiabank Peru. "With this acquisition, we have completed one more phase in our strategy to strengthen our consumer financing and credit card business in Peru, which aligns with our global vision to increase scale in the countries of the Pacific Alliance: Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Peru."

"Our objective is to leverage the teams from Banco Cencosud and Scotiabank to build an improved experience for all our customers," commented Carlos Morante, chief executive officer of Banco Cencosud, who will be in charge of the operation under the new name of Caja Cat Peru. "Our customers will continue to enjoy the products they have with us under the same conditions, but with greater support. We will continue operating separately, taking into account the special features of each business, and we will continue to work with our current team of employees." Mr. Morante indicated that no customer has to change their credit cards or other products. "Everything remains the same," Mr. Morante concluded.

Cencosud Peru owns the second-largest supermarket and the fourth-largest department store chain in the country. Cencosud has operated in Peru since 2007 through the Wong supermarket and Metro supermarket brands, as well as the Paris department stores. It is also the owner of various shopping malls.

About Bank of Nova Scotia

Scotiabank is Canada's international bank and a leading financial services provider in the Americas. The bank is dedicated to helping its more than 25 million customers become better off through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets.