RBC chief eyes ‘significant opportunities’ in US capital markets

Royal Bank of Canada’s Chief Executive Dave McKay is eyeing expansion in the US market through the bank’s capital markets franchise. 

“We have significant opportunities to grow in the US on an organic basis,” McKay said in a Bloomberg Television interview Wednesday from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The Toronto-based bank is seeing greater activity in equity capital markets as well as on the debt side of the market, where “the rate environment’s becoming more constructive for that business,” McKay said, noting that Royal Bank has built its capital markets operation into the ninth-largest franchise in the US. 

Canada’s biggest bank also hopes to further expand its wealth management business internationally, he said. After completing its acquisition of HSBC Holdings Plc’s Canadian assets — a deal set to close at the end of March — and rebuilding capital for transactions, wealth management assets in the US, UK and Europe will be Royal Bank’s main acquisition targets, McKay said.

Related Topics: RBC