page_title: Scotiabank
section_title: 19th century
hierarchical_section_title: Scotiabank / History / 19th century
caption_attribution_description: English: William Lawson by Robert Field
context_page_description: The Bank of Nova Scotia, operating as Scotiabank, is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services company. One of Canada's Big Five banks, it is the third largest Canadian bank by deposits and market capitalization. It serves more than 25 million customers around the world and offers a range of products and services including personal and commercial banking, wealth management, corporate and investment banking. With more than 88,000 employees and assets of $998 billion, Scotiabank trades on the Toronto and New York Exchanges.
  Founded in 1832 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Scotiabank moved its executive offices to Toronto, Ontario in 1900. Scotiabank has billed itself as "Canada's most international bank" due to its acquisitions primarily in Latin America and the Caribbean, and also in Europe and parts of Asia. Scotiabank is a member of the London Bullion Market Association and one of fifteen accredited institutions which participate in the London gold fixing. From 1997 to 2019, this was conducted through its precious metals division ScotiaMocatta.
  Scotiabank is led by President and CEO Brian J. Porter.
context_section_description: The bank was incorporated by the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia on March 30, 1832, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with William Lawson serving as the first president. Scotiabank was founded in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1832 under the name of The Bank of Nova Scotia. The bank intended to facilitate the trans-Atlantic trade of the time.  Later, in 1883, The Bank of Nova Scotia acquired the Union Bank of Prince Edward Island, although most of the bank's expansion efforts in the century took the form of branch openings.
  The bank launched its branch banking system by opening in Windsor, Nova Scotia. The expansion was limited to the Maritimes until 1882, when the bank moved west by opening a branch in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Manitoba branch later closed, but the bank continued to expand into the American Midwest. This included opening a branch in Minneapolis in 1885, which later transferred to Chicago in 1892. Following the collapse of the Commercial Bank of Newfoundland and Union Bank of Newfoundland on December 10, 1894, The Bank of Nova Scotia established on December 15, 1894, in Newfoundland.
  The bank opened a branch in Kingston, Jamaica in 1889 to facilitate the trading of sugar, rum, and fish. This was Scotiabank's first move into the Caribbean and historically the first branch of a Canadian bank to open outside of the United States or the United Kingdom. In 1899, Scotiabank opened a branch in Boston, Massachusetts. By the end of the 19th century, the bank was represented in all of the Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba. In 1900, the bank moved its headquarters to Toronto, Ontario.
caption: William Lawson, served as the first president of the Bank of Nova Scotia, from 1832 to 1837.
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