Royal Bank of Canada
The
Royal Bank of 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. For example, RBC's
investment banking operations are done under the name RBC Capital Markets; it was known as
Dominion Securities when it was formerly an independent firm. RBC also has a large retail banking presence in the southeastern
United States, marketing itself there as
RBC Centura.
RBC is currently headquartered in downtown
Toronto, Ontario at the
Royal Bank Plaza and in the November 22-December 5, 2004 issue of
Canadian Business magazine, the Royal Bank of Canada was ranked the most valuable Canadian
brand, with an estimated value of C$4.4 billion. RBC ranks number 83 on the Forbes Global 2000 list.
*
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 *
2006 - International division merged with
DexiaInternational 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 - Opens an agency in
New York and a branch in
Havana; by the mid-1920s, RBC has 65 branches in Cuba and is the largest bank in the country
*
1907 - Opens a branch in
San Juan, Puerto Rico; branches in
Mayaguez and
Ponce follow.
*
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*
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*
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 .
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 play in the
RBC Center.
RBC is opening a full service branch in
Beijing, China in
2006, the first
Canadian bank to do so.
|
Royal Bank of Canada Original Logo (the crown was removed) |
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 reason for the change was to appease Americans who historically have had mistrust of Royalty. The change coincided with aggressive expansion in Southeastern United States markets.
On
May 31,
2004, a problem during a routine software update affected the accounts of ten million customers. For three days, the entire RBC system failed to register withdrawals and deposits against customer balances. The problem cost the bank
C$9 million to resolve.
RBC came under fire in April of
2006 for a television commercial depicting
animal cruelty. In the ad, a bank employee implied that he wanted to rip off a chihuahua's head [wearing a pink neck leash & pink collar with white transparent studs] to demonstrate how an RBC mortgage can be split. The scene has since been edited out.
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 center 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-
*
Gordon Nixon (2001-present)
Deputy Chair*
Anthony Fell 1998-2000, also Chairman and CEO of RBC
Dominion SecuritiesCurrent 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.
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
*McDowall, Duncan. 1993.
Quick to the Frontier: Canada's Royal Bank. Royal Bank of Canada.
*
RBC Financial Group*
RBC Royal Bank*
RBC Centura*
RBC Royal Bank of Canada (Caribbean and Bahamas)
