Royal Bank of Canada
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The Royal Bank of Canada (TSX: [RY]
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.
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
- 2006 - International division merged with Dexia
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 - 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 Banco Bilbao-Vizcaya.
RBC is opening a full service branch in Beijing, China in 2006, the first Canadian bank to do so.
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 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.
Problems
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.
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 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 Securities
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
References
- McDowall, Duncan. 1993. Quick to the Frontier: Canada's Royal Bank. Royal Bank of Canada.
External links
- [RBC Financial Group]
- [RBC Royal Bank]
- [RBC Centura]
- [RBC Royal Bank of Canada (Caribbean and Bahamas)]
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