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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.

Timeline

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.

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.

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 dollar|C$" target="_blank" >*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 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

Deputy Chair

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.

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:

References

  • McDowall, Duncan. 1993. Quick to the Frontier: Canada's Royal Bank. Royal Bank of Canada.

External links

1864 establishments | Banks of Canada | Companies based in North Carolina | S&P/TSX 60 Index | Banks of the Caribbean

Banque royale du Canada

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Royal Bank of Canada".

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