Royal Bank of Canada to rename its US subsidiary

By Margarita Snegireva. The Royal Bank of Canada announced that it plans to rename its Centura U.S. banking unit. It will be called the RBC Bank.

Photo: Royal Bank of Canada to rename its US subsidiary

Royal Bank of Canada to rename its US subsidiary

RBC acquired the former Centura Banks for about $2.2 billion in 2001 in what was at the time the largest acquisition by a Canadian bank in the United States. RBC Centura operates mainly in the southeastern United States.

The Royal Bank of Canada (Banque Royale du Canada in French) is Canada's largest company. It has over 1,400 branches across Canada, over 70,000 full-and part-time employees worldwide, and offices in over 34 countries.

Its master brand is RBC and that name is used on all its business units. In Canada, the bank is branded as RBC Royal Bank, a combination of its new master brand and its traditional Canadian brand. Examples include RBC Capital Markets, full service investment brokerage firm RBC Dominion Securities, and online investment site RBC Direct Investing. RBC also has a large retail banking presence in the southeastern United States, marketing itself there as RBC Centura.

RBC is incorporated in Montreal in its formal headquarters at Place Ville Marie, but now, all the decisions are made out of Toronto at the Royal Bank Plaza. RBC ranks number 77 on the Forbes Global 2000 list (2007 edition). Its market cap fluctuates at around CAD$ 63.7 billion as of October 31, 2006. Currently RBC is the largest financial institution in Canada in both assets and market capitalization.