In 1864, the Merchants Bank of Halifax was founded in
Halifax, Nova Scotia, as a commercial bank that financed the fishing and timber industries and the European and Caribbean import/export businesses. By 1869 the Merchants' Bank was officially incorporated and received its federal charter in the same year. During the 1870s and 1880s, the bank expanded into the other
Maritime Provinces. When both the Newfoundland Commercial Bank and Union Bank of Newfoundland collapsed on December 10, 1894, the Merchants Bank expanded to Newfoundland on January 31, 1895. To improve its position in
Ontario, RBC merged with Traders Bank of Canada in 1912 and in 1917 RBC merged with
Quebec Bank, which was founded in 1818 and chartered in 1822 in
Quebec City. RBC's presence in Manitoba and
Saskatchewan was strengthened through a 1918 merger with Northern Crown Bank, the product of the 1908 merger of Northern Bank (established in 1905 in Winnipeg) and Crown Bank of Canada (1904), based in
Ontario. RBC's presence in the
Canadian Prairie was further expanded by the 1925 merger with the
Union Bank of Canada, which had begun in Quebec City in 1865 as the Union Bank of Lower Canada, but changed its name in 1886. The Union Bank of Canada had moved its headquarters to Winnipeg in 1912, and had built a strong presence in the Prairies and opened the first bank in the
Northwest Territories at
Fort Smith in 1921. In 1935, RBC merged with Crown Savings and Loan Co. merged with Industrial Mortgage & Trust Co. RoyWest Banking Corporation was formed in
Nassau, Bahamas in 1965, to undertake medium-term lending and trustee business in the
British West Indies. Majority owned by seven firms, including RBC and
Westminster Bank, sole ownership transferred to
National Westminster Bank in 1987. RBC installed its first computer in 1961, the
IBM 1401, the first to do so in Canadian banking. In the 1960s, RBC Insurance was created. RBC Insurance is the largest Canadian bank-owned insurance organization, with services to over five million people. It provides life, health, travel, home and auto and reinsurance products as well as creditor and business insurance services. In 1993, RBC merged with
Royal Trust. In 1998, RBC acquired
Security First Network Bank in Atlanta—the first pure Internet bank. In the same year, the Royal Bank of Canada proposed to merge with the
Bank of Montreal, at the same time as the
Toronto-Dominion Bank proposed to merge with the
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Both mergers were examined by the
Competition Bureau of Canada, and ultimately rejected by
Paul Martin, at the time the
Finance Minister of Canada, and future
Prime Minister. In 2000, RBC merged merchant credit/debit card acquiring business with the
Bank of Montreal's to form
Moneris Solutions. In 2013, RBC completed the acquisition of the Canadian subsidiary of
Ally Financial. An RBC branch in
The Glebe neighbourhood of
Ottawa was firebombed in May 2010. The party responsible later identified themselves on
Independent Media Center and threatened to make their presence at the upcoming
2010 G20 Toronto summit. In November 2022, RBC and
HSBC Canada announced a deal which would see RBC acquiring 100% of the common shares of HSBC Canada for an all-cash purchase price of $13.5 billion, a multiple of 9.4 times HSBC Canada's estimated 2024 earnings. Completion of the transaction is expected by late 2023, subject to regulatory approvals. In December 2023, RBC received approval from
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to take over
HSBC Bank in a deal. Conditions for the deal include that none of HSBC Canada's 4,000 employees will be laid off within six months of the closing date or two years for direct staff, and banking services will be provided at 33 HSBC branches for at least another four years. RBC will also provide $7 billion in financing for
affordable housing developments in
Canada.
International expansion in
Minneapolis, headquarters for RBC Wealth Management, formerly
Dain Rauscher Wessels, a firm acquired by RBC in 2000 • 1882: Merchants Bank of Halifax opened offices in
Bermuda and
Newfoundland. • 1899: RBC opened an agency in
New York City and a branch in
Havana. • 1903: RBC bought Banco de Oriente de Santiago de Cuba. By the mid-1920s, RBC had 65 branches in Cuba and is the largest bank in the country. • 1904: RBC bought Banco del Commercio de Havana. • 1907: RBC opened a branch in
San Juan, Puerto Rico; branches in
Mayagüez and
Ponce followed. • 1909: RBC established a branch in
Nassau, Bahamas. • 1910: RBC opened a branch in London and acquired branches in Puerto Rico and
Port of Spain,
Trinidad as a result of its acquisition of
Union Bank of Halifax. • 1911: RBC opened an agency in
New York City, and branches in
Bridgetown, Barbados, and
Kingston, Jamaica. • 1912: RBC bought Bank of British Honduras (incorporated in 1902 by United States citizens from
Mobile) in
British Honduras, which it converted to a branch. • RBC opened a branch in the Dominican Republic; three more follow. • 1913: RBC opened a branch in Grenada. • 1914: RBC bought out Bank of British Guiana (est. 1836), in
British Guiana, and converted it to a branch. • 1915: RBC opened branches in Costa Rica,
Antigua, Dominica, and
Saint Kitts. • 1916: RBC opened a branch in Venezuela. • 1917: RBC opened branches in Antigua, Dominica, St. Kitts,
Montserrat,
Nevis, and
Tobago. • 1918: RBC opened a branch in
Barcelona, and another in
Vladivostok that lasted less than a year. • 1919: RBC opened branches in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay,
Paris,
Martinique,
Guadeloupe, and
Port-au-Prince, Haiti. • 1920: RBC opened a branch in Colombia and a branch in
Castries, St Lucia. • 1923: RBC bought and consolidated the banking operations of Pedro Gomez Mena e Hijo in
Cuba. • 1925: RBC opened a branch in Peru, and acquired the American-owned, and failed,
Bank of Central and South America. The purchase of BCSA brought with it subsidiaries, and their branches, in Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, and Venezuela • 1932: RBC closed its branch in St. Lucia. • 1940: RBC closed its branches in
Martinique and
Guadeloupe. • 1958: A representative office opened in Hong Kong, which became a branch in 1978. • 1959: RBC opened a branch in
St. Vincent. • 1960: RBC returned to St. Lucia. • 1960:
Fidel Castro's regime acquired RBC's operations in Cuba on December 8. • Additionally, RBC incorporated its operations in Trinidad and Tobago locally, floating the shares, thereby divesting itself of ownership. The new bank took the name
Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago (RBTT). • 1986:
National Mutual Royal Bank opened in Australia with RBC having a 50% shareholding • 1986: RBC sold its two branches in Haiti to
Societe Generale Haitienne de Banque, a local bank. • 1987: RBC sold its operations in Belize, ex-British Honduras, to Belize Holdings Inc., which renamed them
Belize Bank. • 1990: National Mutual Royal Bank in Australia sold to the
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group • 1993: RBC sold Royal Bank of Puerto Rico to Spain's
Banco Bilbao-Vizcaya. • 1995: RBC sold Royal Trust Bank (Austria) to
Anglo Irish Bank, which renamed it Anglo Irish Bank (Austria). • 2000: Acquired
Dain Rauscher Wessels, a US
brokerage and
investment banking firm based in
Minneapolis, Minnesota • 2001: RBC acquired Centura Bank based in
Rocky Mount, North Carolina. • 2001: RBC bought the investment banking and brokerage firm
Tucker Anthony Sutro (
Boston) from
John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co. • 2003: RBC purchased Florida interest in Provident Financial Group, Cincinnati OH. • 2003: Hong Kong branch started operating as a licensed bank. • 2006: RBC upgraded its representative office in
Beijing, China, to a branch. • 2006: Created an institutional investment joint venture with
Dexia. The 50/50 partnership operated under the name RBC Dexia Investor Services. • 2007: RBC acquires Carlin Financial. • 2008: RBC established a representative office in
Mumbai, India. RBC re-acquired 98.14% of the shares of
Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago. This brought RBC back to Trinidad and Tobago 20 years after it had withdrawn and provided it with a presence in other islands served by RBTT. • 2011: RBC sold
RBC Bank to
PNC Financial Services for US$3.62 billion. PNC ATMs are now used by customers with RBC Bank (Georgia), N.A. providing Canadians with bank options when they are residing in the US. • 2012: RBC completed the acquisition of Dexia's 50% stake in RBC Dexia Investor Services Limited, making it the sole owner of the newly named [RBC Investor & Treasury Services]. RBC also opened a Branch in Wilemstad, Curaçao. • 2014: RBC "entered into a merger agreement to acquire
City National Corporation", a major U. S. bank. • 2015: RBC agreed to sell its Swiss private bank Royal Bank of Canada (Suisse) SA to local rival
SYZ Group. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. Royal Bank of Canada (Suisse) manages
CHF 10 billion (US$10.5 billion, C$13.4 billion) of assets for clients in Africa, the Middle East and South America. • 2015: RBC completed the acquisition of City National Bank (November) • 2016: On January 21, 2016, Aviva announced the acquisition of RBC General Insurance Company, for C$582 million. • 2019: RBC agreed to sell its Eastern Caribbean banking operations, in places such as
Antigua,
Dominica, and
Saint Lucia, to a consortium of banks in the region. • 2022: RBC announced the acquisition of wealth manager
Brewin Dolphin in the
United Kingdom, in a deal which valued Brewin Dolphin at C$2.4bn (£1.6bn). • 2024 RBC completed the acquisition of HSBC Canada, splitting some assets with the National Bank for competition issues. ==Branding==