Reportedly, Acquisitions of domestic US firms like Sutro & Co, Tucker Anthony and Dain Rauscher over the past decade made RBC a major full service US brokerage. Last fall, the Canada-based lender had agreed to buy JPMorgan Chase’s registered investment adviser services business. However, during the financial crisis it was cautious regarding making big ticket acquisitions in the US banking sector.
According to Mr Lewis, about 50% of RBC’s international wealth clients are in emerging markets, up from about 40% a couple of years ago. Against this backdrop, RBC is particularly targeting the US and European companies that have presence in Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Mr Lewis said: “RBC is now a premium top 10 global investment bank, a top 20 global wealth manager and we hope to become a top 20 global asset manager in the years ahead. We’re actively looking for opportunities to acquire businesses that have those characteristics in the US or Europe or other parts of the world.”
