Scotiabank could be investor safe haven - Barron's

NEW YORK Aug 17 (Reuters) - Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO) (BNS.N) could offer a safe haven for investors because it is not afflicted with hard-to-value credit assets and huge subprime write-downs, Barron's reported in its Aug. 18 edition.

"It's a well-run bank with almost zero exposure in the U.S., a 4.2 percent dividend yield -- recently raised -- and is not widely followed by the Street," Barron's cited Matthew McCormick, a portfolio manager at Bahl & Gaynor Investment Counsel, as saying.

Scotiabank, as it is called, does not face the mortgage- and credit-market losses that many of its U.S. peers do and also has good growth exposure in Mexico, the Caribbean and South America, Barron's said.

Scotiabank closed up 23 cents at $46.18 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Sarah Coffey, editing by Richard Chang)