Royal Bank Of Canada
The Royal Bank of Canada, Banque Royale du Canada, is revered as the biggest financial institution in Canada. It currently employs more than 70,000 regular and non regular employees in all its national and global offices, more than 1,400 offices and bank centers in more than 30 countries world wide.
Today, the Royal Bank of Canada is popularly known under one single brand – RBC. This abbreviation is widely used in all its subsidiaries and business lines which is commonly called as the RBC Financial Group. In the United States, RBC operation is done through the RBC Centura, considered to be one of the biggest retail banks in the American market. In Canada, where it is headquartered, its flag carrier is the RBC Royal Bank. Although considered to be redundant in its meaning, the company decided on the name to join the heritage of the company and the new brand.
RBC or the Royal Bank of Canada is incorporated in the City of Montreal at the Place Ville Marie headquarters. Presently, all major operational decisions must be deliberated and discussed first at the new Royal Bank Plaza in Toronto. In the 2006 Forbes Global 2000 chart of companies, RBC or the Royal Bank of Canada ranked number 83. Its total assets now amount to $63.7 billion in Canadian Dollars based on 2006 computation.
Locally, the beginning of the Royal Bank of Canada was a history of many mergers. It first opened banking transaction in 1864 under the market name Merchants Banks established in Halifax. Two years later is would be renamed to Merchants Bank of Halifax. Between the years 1912 to 2000, RBC or the Royal Bank of Canada had seven local mergers; including in the list are the Traders Bank of Canada in 1912, the Quebec bank in 1917, Northern Crown Bank in 1918, the Union Bank of Canada in 1925 and the BMO Bank of Montreal. The 2000 acquisition of the BMO Bank of Montreal would result to the formation of Moneris Solutions – a debit / credit card business line. In 2006, RBC Royal Bank of Canada partnered with Dexia – to form a joint institutional investment business known as the RBC Dexia Investor Services.
Aside from its United States satellite bank centers, RBC also has strong banking lead in the Caribbean Markets. In fact, its mother history is close to its international banking history. Its operation overseas started in 1882, when the company opened a bank in Bermuda. In 1899, RBC opened its first banks in Havana and in New York. RBC’s growth in the Caribbean market was fast and right at the start of the 20th century, the company already has sixty five bank centers in Cuba, making it the largest banking institution in that country. The expansion was largely a result of the acquisition of a local bank called Banco de Oriente Santiago de Cuba.
Between the years 1904 and 1925, the increase of Royal Bank Of Canada branches was rapid. It opened bank centers in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, Ponce, Nassau, Bahamas, London, Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados, British Honduras, Dominican Republic, Grenada, British Guiana, Costa Rica, St. Kitts, Dominica, Antigua, Venezuela, Nevis, Tobago, Barcelona, Vladivostok, Brazil, Uruguay, Haiti, Port-Au-Prince, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Paris, St. Lucia, Columbia and Peru.
But it has not always an easy road for the company as two bank centers close in Guadeloupe and Martinique. In 1986 it sold its Haiti banks, in 1993 and 1995 the company sold its banks in Puerto Rico and Austria.
The company picked up in 2001 when it bought Centura Bank in North Carolina which would later become RBC Centura and would be known as one of the largest retail banks in South Eastern US. 2006 also saw its expansion in China, when RBC changed its representing status to an official branch in Beijing. The company’s current logo bearing a lion clutching on a globe signifies the company’s aggressiveness and strong will to lead the banking world through customer satisfaction.