Royal Bank of Canada
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- RBC redirects here. For other uses of RBC see RBC (disambiguation)
| Royal Bank of Canada | |
 |
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| Type of Company | Public company |
|---|---|
| Founded | Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada , 1864 |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Canada |
| Key people | Gordon Nixon - President & CEO |
| Industry | Financial services |
| Products | Financial services |
| Revenue | 28.8 billion (Forbes) |
| Employees | 60,000 |
| Website | http://www.rbc.com/ |
The Royal Bank of Canada (TSX: RY, NYSE: RY), also French: Banque Royale du Canada, is Canada's largest chartered bank. It has over 1,300 branches across Canada, over 60,000 employees worldwide, and offices in over 30 countries.
Its primary marketing name is now RBC and that name is used on all its business units, which are collectively known as RBC Financial Group. Examples include RBC's capital market operations RBC Capital Markets; full service investment brokerage firm RBC Dominion Securities, and online investment site RBC Direct Investing. RBC also has a large retail banking presence in the southeastern United States, marketing itself there as RBC Centura.
RBC is incorporated in Montreal, and its headquarters are in downtown Toronto at the Royal Bank Plaza. RBC ranks number 83 on the Forbes Global 2000 list (2005 edition). Its market cap fluctuates at around CAD$60-65 billion as of August 2006.
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[edit] Timeline
- 1864 - Merchants Bank founded in Halifax
- 1869 - Changed named to Merchants' Bank of Halifax
- 1869 - Federal charter received
- 1870 - 1880s - Expansion in Maritime Provinces
- 1901 - Name changed to Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)
- 1907 - Head Office moved from Halifax to Montreal
- 1910 - Merged with Union Bank of Halifax
- 1912 - Merged with Traders Bank of Canada
- 1917 - Merged with Quebec Bank
- 1918 - Merged with Northern Crown Bank
- 1925 - Merged with Union Bank of Canada
- 1993 - Merged with Royal Trust
- 2000 - Merged merchant credit/debit card acquiring business with BMO Bank of Montreal's to form Moneris Solutions
- 2006 - Created Institutional Investment Joint Venture with Dexia. It is a 50/50 Partnership called RBC Dexia Investor Services. [1]
[edit] International timeline
RBC has carved out a name for itself as a leader in the Caribbean region. RBC Royal Bank maintains a profitable base from its Caribbean operations, and has retained high brand recognition among its other top competitors. RBC is especially known in the anglophone Caribbean for its various personal and business banking services in retailing, loans, and credit offerings.
- 1882 - Bermuda office opens
- 1899 - RBC opens an agency in New York and a branch in Havana.
- 1903 - Buys Banco de Oriente de Santiago de Cuba. By the mid-1920s, RBC has 65 branches in Cuba and is the largest bank in the country.
- 1904 - Buys Banco del Commercio de Havana.
- 1907 - Opens a branch in San Juan, Puerto Rico; branches in Mayagüez and Ponce follow.
- 1909 - RBC established a branch in Nassau, Bahamas.
- 1910 - Opens a branch in London and acquires a branch in Trinidad as a result of its acquistion of Union Bank of Halifax.
- 1911 - Opens branches in Jamaica and Barbados.
- 1912 - Opens a branch in British Honduras and another in the Dominican Republic; three more follow
- 1913 - Opens a branch in Grenada
- 1914 - Opens a branch in British Guiana. Buys out Bank of British Guiana and Bank of Honduras.
- 1915 - Opens branches in Costa Rica, Antigua, Dominica, and St. Kitts
- 1916 - Opens a branch in Venezuela
- 1917 - Opens branches in Nevis, Montserrat, and Tobago
- 1918 - Opens a branch in Barcelona, and another in Vladivostok that lasts less than a year.
- 1919 - Opens branches in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paris, Martinique, Guadaloupe, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti
- 1920 - Opens a branch in Colombia and St. Lucia
- 1925 - Opens a branch in Peru, and acquires the American-owned, and failed, Bank of Central and South America. The purchase of BCSA brings with it subsidiaries, and their branches, in Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, and Venezuela
- 1940 - Branches in Martinique and Guadaloupe close
- 1960 - The Castro regime acquires the RBC's operations in Cuba
- 1970s - As a result of Law 75, RBC's operations in Colombia become Banco Royal Colombiano.
- 1980 - Purchases Banco de San Juan in Puerto Rico, adding its 14 branches to the six that RBC already has in Puerto Rico.
- 1985 - RBC starts to withdraw from much of the Caribbean. It sells its 12 branches in the Dominican Republic to Banco de Commercio Dominicano. It also sells its stake in Royal Bank (Jamaica) to Jamaica Mutual Life Assurance. Furthermore, the Government of Guyana nationalizes its operations there and renames the bank Republic Bank.
- 1986 - RBC sells its two branches in Haiti to Societe Generale Haitienne de Banque, a local bank.
- 1993 - RBC sells Royal Bank of Puerto Rico to Spain's Banco Bilbao-Vizcaya.
- 1995 - RBC sold Royal Trust Bank (Austria) to Anglo Irish Bank, which renamed it Anglo Irish Bank (Austria).
RBC now has a large retail banking presence in the southeastern United States, marketing itself there
as RBC Centura (Centura was the North Carolina based bank RBC purchased in 2001 to establish its U.S. foothold). RBC Centura is based in Rocky Mount, North Carolina (though it has unveiled plans for a move of its headquarters to Raleigh). The Carolina Hurricanes and NC State Wolfpack play in the RBC Center.
RBC is opening a full service branch in Beijing, China in 2006, the first Canadian bank to do so.
[edit] Competition
Main competitors are Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Credit Agricole, BNP Paribas, Bank of America, Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC Private Bank, JP Morgan, Dresdner Kleinwort, Natixis, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch among others.
[edit] Logo
The bank's symbol is a golden lion clutching a globe, on a blue background. An older version had a crown above the globe and had the lion facing to the left rather than the right. The change coincided with aggressive expansion in Southeastern United States markets.
[edit] Corporate governance
Edson Loy Pease (1856-1930), a Quebec native, was a chief executive and managing director of the bank and one of the key people in its history. An employee of the Merchants' Bank of Halifax, he built that bank's Quebec business to where Montreal became its centre of operations. His efforts saw the Bank formally relocate its head office in 1907 to St. James Street in Montreal following which he induced the prominent Montreal business magnate Herbert S. Holt to accept an appointment as the bank's new President. While at the time Holt's presidency was largely a ceremonial position, his name substantially raised the bank's profile and broadened its business connections.
Presidents
- Thomas E. Kenny (1879-1908)
- Herbert Samuel Holt (1908-1934)
- Morris W. Wilson (1934-1946)
- Sydney Dobson (1946-1949)
- James Muir (1949-1960)
- W. Earle McLaughlin (1960-1979)
- Rowland C. Frazee (1977-1980)
- Jock K. Finlayson (1980-1983)
- Allan R. Taylor (1983-1986)
- John E. Cleghorn (1986-2001)
- Gordon Nixon (2001-present)
Deputy Chair
- Anthony Fell 1998-2000, also Chairman and CEO of RBC Dominion Securities
Current members of the board of directors are: Geoffrey Beattie, George Cohon, Douglas Elix, John Ferguson, Paule Gauthier, Jacques Lamarre, Brandt Louie, Gord Nixon, David O'Brien, Robert Peterson, Pedro Reinhard, Cecil Sewell, Kathleen Taylor, Victor Young.
[edit] Memberships
RBC is a member of the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) and registered member with the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC), a federal agency insuring deposits at all of Canada's chartered banks. It is also a member of:
- Interac
- VISA International
- Plus Network
- NYCE point of sale Network
[edit] References
- McDowall, Duncan. 1993. Quick to the Frontier: Canada's Royal Bank. Royal Bank of Canada.
[edit] External links
- RBC Financial Group
- RBC Royal Bank
- RBC Centura
- RBC Dominion Securities
- RBC Royal Bank of Canada (Caribbean and Bahamas)
- RBC Global Private Banking
[edit] Historical bank notes
- 1920 Trinidad and Tobago banknote (front) - Example of Royal Bank Caribbean banknotes
- 1920 Trinidad and Tobago banknote (back) - Example of Royal Bank Caribbean banknotes
- 1938 Saint Kitts banknote (front) - Example of Royal Bank of Canada banknotes
- 1938 Saint Kitts banknote (back) - Example of Royal Bank of Canada banknotes
| Royal Bank of Canada | |
|
Chief Executive Officer: Gordon Nixon | FY 2006 Statistics: Net income: $4.7 billion CAD ( |
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| Major brands by financial service | |
| Master: RBC | Financial group: RBC Financial Group | Canadian banking: RBC Royal Bank | U.S. banking: RBC Centura | International banking: Royal Bank of Canada Global Private Banking | Canadian mutual funds: RBC Funds | U.S. mutual funds: Tamarack Funds | Canadian brokerage: RBC Direct Investing and RBC Dominion Securities | U.S. brokerage: RBC Dain Rauscher | Canadian insurance: RBC Insurance | U.S. insurance: RBC Insurance | Capital markets: RBC Capital Markets | Custodial: RBC Dexia |
Categories: Companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange | Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange | Articles lacking sources from June 2006 | All articles lacking sources | 1864 establishments | Banks of Canada | Companies based in North Carolina | S&P/TSX 60 Index | Banks of the Caribbean | Companies based in Toronto
