Royal Bank of Canada Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
The Royal Bank of Canada is Canada's largest chartered bank. It has over 1,300 branches across Canada and has offices in over 30 countries. Its primary marketing name is now RBC and that name is used on all its business units, which are collectively known as RBC Financial Group. For example, RBC's investment banking operations are done under the name RBC Capital Markets. RBC now has a large retail banking presence in the southeastern United States, marketing itself there as RBC Centura (Centura was the North Carolina based bank RBC purchased in 2001 to establish its U.S. foothold).RBC was founded in 1864 in Halifax, Nova Scotia as The Merchants Bank. It received its federal charter in 1869. The name was changed to The Royal Bank of Canada in 1901. In 1990 the name was shortened to Royal Bank of Canada. The bank's symbol is a golden lion clutching a globe, on a blue background. An older version had a crown above the globe and had the lion facing to the left rather than the right. RBC is currently headquartered in downtown Toronto, Ontario at the Royal Bank Plaza.
On May 31, 2004, a problem during a routine software update affected the accounts of ten million customers. For three days, the entire RBC system failed to register withdrawals and deposits against customer balances. The problem cost the bank 9 million Canadian dollars to resolve.