Royal Bank Of Canada Bolsters International Wealth Arm

Max Skjönsberg

21 June 2012

RBC Wealth Management has added Pedro Cañas to its international wealth management arm as first vice president and international financial advisor.

Cañas joins the firm from Oppenheimer in New York, where he provided wealth management services for high net worth clients in Venezuela and Argentina. Earlier in his career, he worked at ANZ Securities and Bear Stearns & Co, with a focus on Latin America.

The international division of the Canadian wealth manager boasts 2,300 employees and 35 offices across the globe.

Back in March, RBC Wealth Management agreed to buy the Latin American, Caribbean and African private banking business of Coutts, the wealth division of Royal Bank of Scotland Group. The business has client assets in excess of $2 billion, but the terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“This business represents an excellent opportunity to increase our market share with high net worth and ultra high net worth clients in key high growth markets while delivering very attractive returns,” George Lewis, group head of RBC Wealth Management, said at the time.

The bank continued in the same expansionary mood in May when it emerged that Capgemini, the consulting firm which has partnered with Merrill Lynch in producing a closely-watched global wealth report, announced that it will from now on work with RBC instead to produce the survey. The first World Wealth Report under the new partnership was released earlier this week and found that overall financial wealth of HNW individuals fell by 1.7 per cent globally in 2011 to stand at $42 trillion. However, those in the $1 million to $5 million segment - which represents 90 per cent of all HNW individuals - increased both in numbers and wealth.