Canadian bank thinks it looks like a bastion of solidity compared to rivals. The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has opened an investment advisory business in Brazil, headquartered in the country's financial-service capital Sao Paulo. Though the Canadian bank has been supporting import-export deals and other business ventures in Brazil since 1919, its move to work directly with Brazilian consumers there is part of RBC's push into private-client markets across Latin America.

Over the past year, Toronto-based RBC opened new offices in Chile and Panama and expanded existing platforms in Mexico and Uruguay. It also has offices in Argentina and Venezuela.

"We continually look for opportunities to grow in select markets where our history and brand are strong and where we can meet the needs of our clients," says Michael Moodie, head RBC Wealth Management in the Americas. "In Brazil, our goal is to be perceived as one of the best advisory firms in the country."

Strength and discipline

The new Brazilian business, RBC Brasil DTVM, provide investment advice through an open platform of third-party domestic mutual funds, multi-market hedge funds and equities to high-net-worth Brazilians. RBC advisors will work with local fund managers and advise clients on asset allocation of domestic financial instruments.

RBC Brasil DTVM is headed by Jose Lima, a Brazilian who joined RBC in 2001. Prior to his new appointment he was head of RBC Wealth Management's Latin American sales offices.

The long-term outlook for Brazil's economic growth is positive, according to Lima. "Its economy is the region's largest, its funds industry is very developed with hundreds of billions of dollars in assets, and it has a sophisticated financial system and a stock exchange as large as the Toronto Stock Exchange," he adds.

In 2007, Brazil's high-net-worth population increased by 19.1% on market-capitalization growth of 93% and real GDP growth of 5.1%, according to the latest World Wealth Report by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch.

Overall, RBC hired 200 new staff members to its international wealth-management division last year -- and, as it sees dislocation in the global financial-service industry as a green light, it plans to continue adding staff through 2009. The bank has been an especially aggressive recruiter in Europe.

Michael Lagopoulos, head of RBC Wealth Management's international business, says the plan is to expand "in key areas outside of North America" using its reputation for "financial strength and discipline in managing risk" as its calling card.

RBC Wealth Management has 4,000 financial consultants, advisors, private bankers and trust officers in Canada, the U.S., Latin America, Europe and Asia. It has nearly $412 billion in assets under administration and more than $181 billion in assets under management. -FWR

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