“We kind of felt like what we were prepared to commit for the next three to five years was 200-300 basis points of operating leverage.”

In context

“Alastair Borthwick: Yeah. Mike, when we got together at Investor Day, we essentially outlined for our shareholders that we felt like the financial model works if we can create 200 basis points of operating leverage from the organic growth and the expense discipline that we expect to put up every cycle. What we also said is we benefit from fixed rate asset repricing for a period of time here. We kind of felt like what we were prepared to commit for the next three to five years was 200-300 basis points of operating leverage. Obviously, we have performed positively and outperformed that in the first six months of the year. The two reasons for that are, first, NII just keeps grinding higher, and as Brian pointed out, all of that's dropping to the bottom line. That's really powerful. Second, we had really terrific fee-based performance over the course of the first six months. You can see it in assets under management. You can see it in sales and trading. You can see it investment banking. That's really boosted. At some point, you're halfway through the year with 450 basis points of operating leverage, and it's pretty clear we're going to be above 300. We know we've got tougher comps in the second half, but it's still a strong second half. When we put that up, we should be in a good place to report full year results. That's what we're aiming at.”