“As we continue to grow our revenues, we should be able to deliver better and better efficiency.”

In context

“Okay. And then next question is really sort of a follow on from Betsy's line of questioning. So year-to-date you've got a 64% efficiency ratio. You know, when we take a step back and think about your targets and aspirations for that metric and an environment, consider an environment that seems to be improving steadily, you know, how should we be thinking about margins on incremental revenue? You know, could you help us understand how revenue growth will continue to drive improvement in that efficiency ratio? Dennis Coleman: Sure. So, thank you for that question and thank you for observing the improvement that we're seeing. Obviously, our year-to-date efficiency ratio at 63.8% is nearly 10 points better on a year-over-year basis. Still not at our target of 60%, but we are making progress. As we continue to grow our revenues, we should be able to deliver better and better efficiency. But ultimately, the type of revenues that we grow and the extent to which they attract variable or volume-based expenses is a contributing factor. But we do have visibility, for example, as we continue to move out of some of our CIE exposures that we should be able to reduce some of the operating expenses associated with that. And we do have a very granular process internally, looking at each of our expense categories on a granular basis and trying to make structural improvements to drive efficiencies over time, while we at the same time look to drive top line revenues. Operator: Thank you. We'll go next to Mike Mayo with Wells Fargo Securities. Mike Mayo: Hi. I'm just trying to reconcile all the positive comments with returns that are still quite below your target. I mean, you highlight”