View important timelines showing our progress in select areas.
Automating the Branch
Online Banking
Aboriginal Banking
Women at Royal Bank
Diversity and Inclusion
Green Initiatives
Corporate Responsibility
| Year | Data |
|---|---|
| 1899 | Royal Bank (then known as the Merchants’ Bank of Halifax) opened an agency in New York City. |
| Royal Bank opened a short-lived branch in Republic, Washington in support of mining interests and opportunities to profit from foreign exchange. | |
| 1929 | The Dominion Securities Corporation Limited’s U.S. affiliate was incorporated in New York. It first established its business in 1921. |
| 1945 | Royal Bank opened a representative office in Chicago, Illinois. The main purpose of representative offices was to facilitate and grow Royal Bank’s business in the respective regions. |
| 1951 | The Royal Bank of Canada Trust Company was incorporated as a New York state bank facilitating Royal Bank’s operations in New York City by performing services that could not be performed through the New York agency. |
| 1958 | Royal Bank opened a representative office in Dallas, Texas. |
| 1961 | Royal Bank opened a representative office in Los Angeles, California. |
| 1973 | Royal Bank opened a representative office in San Francisco, California. |
| 1979 | Further expansion into the United States included Royal Bank’s opening of representative offices in Houston, Texas, Denver, Colorado and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and also a wholesale branch in Portland, Oregon. |
| 1980 | Royal Bank opened an agency in Miami, Florida. |
| 1982 | Dominion Securities opened new full-time money market desks in New York and London, England to complement existing dealing from Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver and acquired two seats on the New York Stock Exchange. |
| 1983 | Dominion Securities acquired a Chicago-based lease financing business (later named Dominion Securities Ames Capital Funding Inc.), and also acquired a New York foreign exchange brokerage organization operating as a division of Dominion Securities-Tradition Inc., the firm’s inter-bank deposit brokerage joint venture. |
| 1989 | Royal Bank opened a representative office in Atlanta, Georgia. |
| Royal Bank’s branch/agency network in the United States discontinued offering retail services as a result of organizational changes that included the closing of The Royal Bank of Canada Trust Company, and the discontinuation of all services formerly offered by this entity. The major business focus in the United States continued to be corporate banking, treasury, correspondent banking and private banking products. | |
| 1990 | Royal Bank opened a branch in Buffalo, New York. |
| 1991 | Royal Bank is the first Canadian bank to receive approval from U.S. Regulators to underwrite corporate securities in the U.S. through its securities subsidiary, RBC Dominion Securities. |
| 1995 | New York office of RBC Dominion Securities acquired Kidder Peabody’s equity derivatives group leading to the first true cross-pollination of the bank and broker with respect to trading activities with the Global Equity Derivatives (GED) group. The success of the GED encouraged Dominion Securities to pursue a niche corporate and investment banking strategy, combining their existing corporate banking strength with new investment banking capabilities. |
| Royal Bank shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. | |
| 1996 | Royal Bank Trading and RBC Dominion Securities integrated several key trading functions under the banner of RBC DS Global Markets. New state-of-the-art trading/sales platforms were built in London, Singapore, New York, Montreal and Toronto. |
| 1998 | Royal Bank acquired Atlanta-based Security First Network Bank (SFNB) – the first bank to launch fully functional banking and related financial management services over the Internet. |
| Royal Bank acquired New York-based discount broker Bull & Bear Securities. | |
| RBC Dominion Securities strengthened its Houston-based energy group with the hiring of the Oilfield Services research team from Jefferies & Company. | |
| 2000 | Royal Bank acquired Chicago-based Prism Financial Corporation and both Liberty Life Insurance Company and Liberty Insurance Services Corporation, the insurance subsidiaries of The Liberty Corporation of Greenville, South Carolina. |
| 2001 | Royal Bank took major steps to develop its U.S. retail banking and full-service brokerage operations by acquiring Centura Banks, Inc., headquartered in Rocky Mount, North Carolina and Dain Rauscher Corporation, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Tucker Anthony Sutro Corporation of Boston, Massachusetts. |
| 2002 | RBC Global Private Banking acquired the private banking business of Barclays PLC in the Americas |
| RBC Centura Banks Inc. acquired Eagle Bancshares, Inc. of Tucker, Georgia, and its subsidiary Tucker Federal Bank. | |
| 2003 | Royal Bank continued to grow its U.S. operations with “add-on” acquisitions: RBC Centura Banks, Inc. acquired Admiralty Bankcorp, Inc., of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida and the Florida operations of Cincinnati, Ohio-based Provident Financial Group Inc. |
| RBC Dain Rauscher Inc. closed its acquisition of certain assets of West Paterson, N.J.-based First Institutional Securities, LLC. | |
| RBC Insurance completed the acquisition of certain assets of Business Men’s Assurance Co. of America (BMA) from Generali Group. BMA became a subsidiary of Liberty Life Insurance Co. | |
| RBC Mortgage Company acquired Sterling Capital Mortgage Company, the residential mortgage operations of the bank subsidiary of Sterling Bancshares, Inc. | |
| 2004 | RBC Dain Rauscher Inc. acquired Florida-based William R. Hough & Co., a privately held full-service investment firm specializing in fixed income sales, trading and underwriting primarily in the Southeastern U.S. |
| 2006 | Delaware-based American Guaranty & Trust was acquired enabling Royal Bank to provide U.S. trust solutions to high net-worth clients. |
| RBC Centura Banks, Inc. acquired Atlanta, Georgia-based Flag Financial Corporation and its bank subsidiary, Flag Bank. | |
| 2007 | RBC Capital Markets completed three acquisitions expanding its client base and enhancing capabilities: Carlin Financial Group, a New York-based boutique broker dealer known for its sophisticated trading and execution services; Daniels & Associates, L.P., a first-ranked U.S. mergers and acquisitions advisor to the cable, telecom and broadcast industries and Seasongood & Mayer, LLC, Ohio’s top-ranked public finance firm and leading underwriter of municipal debt. |
| RBC Centura Banks Inc. continued to expand in the U.S. Southeast by acquiring 39 AmSouth Bank branches in Alabama. | |
| RBC Dain Rauscher Inc. acquired J.B. Hanauer & Co., expanding its presence in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida. | |
| 2008 | RBC Centura Banks Inc. acquired Birmingham-based Alabama National BanCorporation, parent of 10 subsidiary banks and other affiliated businesses in Alabama, Florida and Georgia. RBC Centura also changed its brand name to RBC Bank following the change of its legal name to RBC Bank (USA). |
| RBC Dain Rauscher Inc., changed its brand name to RBC Wealth Management and changed its legal entity name to RBC Capital Markets Corporation; Washington, D.C.-based Ferris, Baker Watts, Incorporated was also acquired. | |
| RBC Capital Markets acquired Richardson Barr & Co. a Houston, Texas-based energy advisory firm. | |
| 2012 | Royal Bank sold its U.S. regional (RBC Bank) retail banking operations to the PNC Financial Services Group, Inc and restructured its U.S. banking operations to better serve the personal banking needs of Canadian cross-border clients and U.S. clients of RBC Wealth Management. |
