Royal Bank of Canada
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; French: Banque Royale du Canada) is a Canadian multinational financial services company and the largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 20 million clients and has more than 100,000 employees worldwide.[2] Founded in 1864 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, it maintains its corporate headquarters in Toronto and its head office in Montreal.[2] RBC's institution number is 003. In November 2017, RBC was added to the Financial Stability Board's list of global systemically important banks.
This article is about the Canadian multinational commercial bank. For the brand name the bank operates under in the United States, see RBC Bank. For the Canadian central bank, see Bank of Canada.Company type
In Canada, the bank's personal and commercial banking operations are branded as RBC Royal Bank in English and RBC Banque Royale in French and serves approximately 11 million clients through its network of 1,284 branches. RBC Bank is a US banking subsidiary which formerly operated 439 branches across six states in the Southeastern United States,[6] but now only offers cross-border banking services to Canadian travellers and expats. RBC's other Los Angeles-based US subsidiary City National Bank operates 79 branches across 11 US states.[7] RBC also has 127 branches across seventeen countries in the Caribbean, which serve more than 16 million clients.[8] RBC Capital Markets is RBC's worldwide investment and corporate banking subsidiary, while the investment brokerage firm is known as RBC Dominion Securities. Investment banking services are also provided through RBC Bank and the focus is on middle market clients.
In 2011, RBC was the largest Canadian company by revenue and market capitalization.[9] In 2023, the company was ranked 38th in the Forbes Global 2000.[10] The company has operations in Canada and 36 other countries,[11] and had CA$1.01 trillion of assets under management in 2021.[5][12]
Controversies[edit]
Discrimination[edit]
On January 15, 2007, CBC Radio reported RBC was "refusing" to open US dollar accounts for people of certain nationalities.[56] Canadian citizens with dual citizenship in Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Myanmar, North Korea or Sudan (mostly countries with US sanctions) were affected. The US Treasury Department restricts certain foreign nationals from using the US dollar payment system to limit terrorism and money laundering after the September 11, 2001, attacks. RBC replied that compliance with such laws does not represent an endorsement by the bank and on January 17, clarified its position on the application of the US laws, specifying that "with some exceptions" it does open accounts for dual citizens of the sanctioned countries.[57] There have also been reports that the bank had closed the accounts of some Iranian-Canadian citizens.[58]
Environment[edit]
According to a report by Rainforest Action Network, RBC's financing of oil sands bitumen extraction and expansion amounted to "more than $2.3 billion in loans and financing [of] more than $6.9 billion in [corporate] debt between 2003 and 2007 for 13 companies including: Encana, Husky Energy, OPTI Canada, Delphi Energy, Canadian Oil Sands Trust, Northwest Upgrading, Suncor, TotalEnergies, Connacher Oil and Gas, InterPipeline and Enbridge".[59]
A 2020 report on fossil fuel finance by the Sierra Club and Rainforest Action Network found that RBC was the fifth largest funder of fossil fuels in the world, and largest in Canada, investing over US$160 billion on fossil fuel projects since the Paris Agreement in 2015.[60] This sparked criticism from environmental groups and climate activists.[61]
A more recent 2023 report from a coalition of environmental group places RBC as the largest financier of fossil fuel in the world in 2022, investing US$42 billion in fossil fuel projects in that year alone. [62] [63]
Funding of SCO litigation on Linux[edit]
RBC invested in SCO Group during the series of court cases seeking to collect royalties from the users of Linux.[64]
Investor protection[edit]
In 2014, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined RBC $35,000,000 for engaging in more than 1,000 wash sales, fictitious sales, and other non-competitive practices over a three year period.[65]
Mismarking[edit]
In 2007, the Royal Bank of Canada fired several traders in its corporate bond business, after another trader accused them of mismarking bonds the bank held by overpricing them, and marked down the values of the bonds and recognized $13 million of trading losses relating to the bonds.[66] The bank said it investigated the accusations, and took remedial action.[66] The Globe and Mail noted: "traders might have an incentive to boost [the bonds'] prices because it could have an impact on their bonuses."[66]
