Many financial services firms had better results in the second quarter of 2010 compared with the corresponding period last year, but 10 of 49 firms in the survey had declines in net income and 10 were in a loss position.

The 49 firms exclude three in the survey whose results are consolidated with others surveyed: Great-West Lifeco Inc. and IGM Financial Inc., both of which are majority-owned by Power Financial Corp.; and DundeeWealth Inc. , which is majority-owned by Dundee Corp.

Overall, the surveyed companies had an average decline in earnings of 37.1% vs Q2 2009, but that was because the current numbers were skewed by two companies: Manulife Financial Corp. had a $2.4-billion loss this quarter vs a profit of $1.8 billion in Q2 2009, and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. had a $373 million in net income this year vs a loss of $510 million in Q2 2009. Excluding Manulife and Brookfield, the average earnings gain for the other firms is 2.5%.

Manulife’s big loss was the result of a big increase in actuarial liabilities from the impact of equities-market declines on the guarantees for variable annuity and segregated fund products, as well as the effect of continued low interest rates on the liabilities for long-term care and universal-life products.

Although Manulife has increased its hedging of its equities-market exposure, almost 50% of “in-force” business is still unhedged. As a result, credit-rating agency DBRS Ltd. has lowered the long-term debt rating for Manulife and its subsidiaries to AA (low) from AA. DBRS is concerned that the company may have to raise capital and has already tapped the “most readily available sources.”

In Brookfield’s case, that company returned to more normal earnings from a big loss 12 months earlier, which had been due to negative $887 million in “fair value” changes in Q2 2009; there was virtually no change in this category this quarter. It’s important to note that Brookfield has already changed to the international financial reporting standards that everyone will have to adopt in 2011, so its results are not directly comparable with those of other firms in the survey.

Consolidation also continued in Q2 2010, with Thomas Weisel Partners Group Inc. disappearing from the survey; it has been taken over by Stifel Financial Corp. Both are U.S.-based companies, but Thomas Weisel had been listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange because of its significant presence in Canada.

Sceptre Investment Counsel Ltd. merged with Fiera Capital Inc. on Sept. 1; the new company has been named Fiera Sceptre Inc. and will trade on the TSX.

Some other companies in the survey also made acquisitions. For instance, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce completed its purchase of Citigroup’s Canadian MasterCard credit card portfolio on Sept. 1.

Property and casualty insurer Kingsway Financial Services Inc. purchased JBA Associates Inc. , a managing general agency in New Jersey that specializes in assigned-risk auto insurance, on June 30. Kingsway had already divested itself of its Canadian operations and some U.S. operations and is trying to reinvent itself. Its new president and CEO, Larry Swets, owns Itasca Financial LLC, a P&C advisory firm in Itasca, Ill., from which Kingsway bought assets this past January.

In September, IGM-owned In-vest-ment Planning Counsel Inc. announced that it will be acquiring Partners in Planning Financial Group Ltd. in a deal expected to close in Q4 2010.

There were a few companies that increased their quarterly dividends, including Intact Financial Corp., which raised its dividend to 34¢ from 32¢, and GMP Capital Inc., whose dividend rose to 6¢ from 5¢. In addition, Gluskin Sheff & Associates Inc. declared a special dividend of 80¢ and announced that its quarterly dividend will rise to 13.75¢ from the current 12.5¢ with the release of its next quarterly results.

A closer look at the sectors:

> Banks. Eleven of the 16 deposit-taking institutions had increased earnings, while Xceed Mortgage Corp. reported a profit vs a loss a year earlier. However, Firm Capital Mortgage Investment Trust, National Bank of Canada and Royal Bank of Canada all had lower net income, and Pacific & Western Credit Corp. remained in a loss position.

All the banks with capital-markets operations were affected by lower trading volumes. For National Bank and RBC, this pulled them below their record earnings in Q2 2009. All banks benefited from a higher net interest margin in personal and commercial banking. The banks that report wealth-management results separately — Bank of Montreal, National Bank, RBC and Toronto-Dominion Bank — all reported increased earnings in this area.

The value of Firm Capital’s mortgage portfolio was down; it’s cautiously continuing to source high-yielding non-conventional mortgages. Pacific & Western’s net interest margin was low because of the number of guaranteed income certificates it was holding; the firm believes it can get its net interest margin up to be in line with its peers in the next few quarters.

Results among the other smaller deposit-taking institutions included a 344.5% earnings gain for Cash Store Financial Services Inc., which continues to add branches. As of June 30, it had 525 stores vs 424 a year earlier. Home Capital Group Inc. continues to do well and reported that volumes in its securitization program remain robust.

For the group as a whole, provisions for credit losses totalled $1.6 billion in Q2 2010, down by $291 million from the previous quarter and by $1.4 billion in Q2 2009.
@page_break@> Life Insurers. Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc. had a big jump of 82.9% in earnings, while GWL was up by 5.6%. In contrast, Sun Life Financial Inc. , which also suffered from the drop in equities prices and low interest rates, was down by 60.3% and Manulife had its huge loss.

GWL’s U.S. mutual fund subsidiary, Putnam Investments LLC, remains in net redemptions. Its European operations had a drop in profitability, while its Canadian and U.S. businesses were up.

Manulife’s wealth-management division and Sun Life’s MFS Investment Management both had net sales.

All of IA’s main businesses were up except individual life insurance, which was affected by new-business strain, as the costs of new business are paid up front while the revenue comes in over time.

> Property And Casualty. Intact had a big earnings gain and Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. was up marginally while Co-operators General Insurance Co. and EGI Financial Holdings Inc. both had big drops in net income. Kingsway continues to post losses as it reinvents itself.

Much like the P&C industry as a whole, these publicly traded companies have been struggling with a challenging market that has resulted in underwriting losses for most. Only Intact had a combined ratio below 100, which indicates an underwriting profit.

Ontario’s auto insurance market has been a major problem, but the provincial government implemented a new regulatory regime on Sept. 1, which Intact’s report says is expected to help curb premium rate increases and cut company costs.

Intact’s report also notes that personal property insurance premiums continue to rise to reflect the impact of more frequent and/or severe storms as well as water-related losses, which are the leading cause of home insurance claims.

On the commercial side, the Intact report says pricing remains soft but is beginning to firm.

> Mutual Fund And Investment-Management Firms. Results were mixed in this sector as five companies saw earnings rise and Brookfield reported positive net income vs a loss a year earlier. However, four other companies had earnings declines, and two were in a loss position.

The three large independent mutual fund companies — AGF Management Ltd., CI Financial Corp. and IGM — all had increased earnings, even though only CI had healthy net sales of $310 million in Q2. AGF had net redemptions of $477 million.

IGM subsidiaries Investors Group Inc. and Mackenzie Finan-cial Corp. had net redemptions of $103 million and $516.3 million, respectively. Only IGM’s smaller subsidiary, IPC, had positive net sales of $32.5 million.

AGF, Investors Group and Mackenzie remained in net redemptions through August, while CI had net sales in July but small net redemptions of $15 million in August. IPC remained in positive territory.

What produced the 59% earnings increase at AGF was a 35.1% increase (to $18.5 billion) in institutional and strategic accounts. That’s only a little less than AGF’s $21.4 billion in mutual fund assets under management.

In contrast, DundeeWealth, the other big mutual fund company, saw earnings decline despite $768 million in net sales in Q2. The main reason for its 32.6% drop in net income was that earnings in Q2 2009 had been inflated by adjustments to the fair value of investments.

> Distributors And Suppliers. This is another sector with mixed results. Six companies increased their earnings, and Anthony Clark International Insurance Brokers Ltd., Coventree Inc. and Northern Financial Corp. had losses.

Coventree’s plan to wind up its business received shareholder approval on June 30. Northern Financial has been in a loss position since Q3 2007.

All three brokerages — Canaccord Financial Inc. , GMP and Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. — saw earnings rise but are cautious about the future. As GMP’s report puts it: “The timing of the global economic recovery remains uncertain” and investor confidence is expected to “remain tentative in light of issues such as heightened concern relating to sovereign debt in the European Union and the removal of government stimulus.”

> Stock Exchanges. The lower trading activity experienced by the banks’ capital-markets operations led to a meagre increase in earnings for TMX Group Inc. — although its 4.4% decline in trading, clearing and related revenue was relatively small. All other business lines had increased revenue, but expenses were up as the company continued to invest in various technology initiatives, corporate development and marketing.

> Holding Companies. Unlike DundeeWealth, parent Dundee had a strong increase in earnings. This was due to gains in its asset-management operations and in its resources and real estate investments.

Desjardins Group’s personal, business and institutional services, and its wealth-management, life and health insurance lines of business had strong earnings gains, while P&C insurance’s net income was unchanged from a year earlier.

Jovian Capital Corp. has been in a loss position in most quarters since Q1 2007.

Power Financial had a small decline in earnings despite increases for both GWL and IGM. This was due to lower earnings at Pargesa Holding SA, in which Power Financial has an interest. IE