The (, ) is
Canada 's largest
Chartered Bank by far. 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 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.
Like many Canadian banks, Royal Bank grew through expansion and mergers:
RBC now has a large retail banking presence in the southeastern
United States , marketing itself there as (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 has carved out a name for itself as a leader in the
Caribbean region. 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.
RBC is opening a full service branch in
Beijing, China in
2006 , the first
Canadian bank to do so.
- 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
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 a cat in half to demonstrate how an RBC mortgage can be split. The scene has since been edited out.
Current members of the ,
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 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:
- McDowall, Duncan. 1993. ''Quick to the Frontier: Canada's Royal Bank''. Royal Bank of Canada.
