page_title: Royal Bank of Canada
section_title: International expansion
hierarchical_section_title: Royal Bank of Canada / History / International expansion
caption_attribution_description: English: View from the Circus Grill restaurant in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis, including Fort Street
context_page_description: The Royal Bank of Canada is a Canadian multinational financial services company and the largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 16 million clients and has 86,000+ employees worldwide. The bank was founded in 1864 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, although its legal and official headquarters is located at Place Ville Marie in Montreal, Quebec. However, its corporate headquarters is located in Toronto, Ontario. RBC's institution number is 003. In November 2017, RBC was added to the Financial Stability Board's list of global systemically important banks.
  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 ten million clients through its network of 1,209 branches. RBC Bank is the U.S. banking subsidiary which formerly operated 439 branches across six states in the Southeastern United States, but now only offers cross-border banking services to Canadian travellers and expats. RBC also has 127 branches across seventeen countries in the Caribbean, which serve more than 16 million clients.
context_section_description: 1882 – Merchants Bank of Halifax opened an office in Bermuda.
  1882 – Merchants Bank of Halifax opened an office in 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 St. 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.
  1959 – RBC opened a branch in St. Vincent.
  1960 – RBC returned to St. Lucia.
  1960 – Fidel Castro's regime acquired the RBC's operations in Cuba on 8 December. At the time of the forced sale, RBC had 24 branches in Cuba. From 1961 to 1965, RBC maintained a Special Representative in Havana to facilitate trade between Cuba and Canada. After the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961, the Special Representative acted as a financial intermediary between the American and Cuban governments to manage the ransoming of the prisoners for food and agricultural machinery.
  1964 – RBC opened a branch in George Town, Grand Cayman.
  1970s – As a result of Law 75, RBC's operations in Colombia became Banco Royal Colombiano.
  1973 – RBC was forced to incorporate its operations in Jamaica, which became Royal Bank (Jamaica).
  1980 – RBC purchased Banco de San Juan in Puerto Rico, adding its 14 branches to the six that RBC already had in Puerto Rico. RBC sold its assets in Grenada to Republic Bank of Trinidad and Tobago.
  1985 – RBC started to withdraw from much of the Caribbean.
  It sold its 12 branches in the Dominican Republic to Banco de Comercio Dominicano.
  It also sold its stake in Royal Bank (Jamaica) to Jamaica Mutual Life Assurance. Branches in Curacao, Aruba, St. Maarten and Dominica are still open (1985- present)
  The Government of Guyana nationalized its operations there and renamed the bank the National Bank of Industry and Commerce Ltd.
  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 – 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.
  1993 – RBC sold Royal Bank of Puerto Rico to Spain's Banco Bilbao-Vizcaya.
  1995 – RBC sold Royal Trust Bank (Austria) to Anglo 
caption: A RBC Royal Bank branch in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis. RBC has operated in the country since 1914.
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