Scotiabank

Financial services companies of Canada

Scotiabank is one of North America’s premier financial institutions and Canada’s most international bank. With approximately 60,000 employees, Scotiabank Group and its affiliates serve more than 12.5 million customers in some 50 countries around the world, offering a diverse range of products and services, including personal, commercial, corporate and investment banking.

Since welcoming our first customers in 1832, Scotiabank has enjoyed continued success by building on traditional core strengths - risk management, cost control, diversification, customer satisfaction and great employees. Our goal is to be the best Canadian-based international financial services company.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an essential part of the way we do business at Scotiabank. We believe that, as a socially responsible company, our corporate goals and objectives must align with the priorities of our stakeholders, including our customers, employees, shareholders and community partners.

In 2007, the Bank contributed more than $43 million in sponsorships and donations to a variety of Canadian and international projects and initiatives, primarily in education, health care, social services, and arts and culture.

Our Core Businesses

Scotiabank focuses on creating and seizing opportunities to better serve our customers, reward our shareholders, engage our employees and help our communities to prosper. Our success is reflected in our philosophy, One Team, One Goal, and in the strength of our three major business lines: Domestic Banking, International Banking and Scotia Capital.

Domestic Banking

Domestic Banking provides a comprehensive range of banking and investment services to over 7 million retail, wealth management, small business and commercial customers across Canada. Our multi-channel domestic delivery network includes more than 21,800 employees, over 1,000 branches, more than 2,850 automated banking machines, Internet, telephone and wireless banking, three call centres, 99 wealth management branches, four dealer finance centres and six commercial business support centres.

The Wealth Management Group — which incorporates the key personal investment and advisory activities within the Scotiabank Group — offers a comprehensive range of products and services. These encompass retail brokerage, mutual funds, and private client services (including personal trust, money management and private banking).

International Banking

International Banking encompasses Scotiabank’s retail and commercial banking operations in more than 40 countries outside Canada - an international presence unmatched by our domestic competitors. The more than 34,000 employees of this business line, its subsidiaries and affiliates provide a full range of financial services to more than 5 million customers across the following geographic regions: the Caribbean and Central America, Mexico, Latin America and Asia.

Scotia Capital Inc.

Scotia Capital offers lending, investment banking and capital markets products to corporate, government and institutional clients. It provides full-service coverage across the NAFTA region, as well as a niche focus in select markets globally, through two divisions - Global Capital Markets and Global Corporate and Investment Banking. Scotia Capital has 17 offices and more than 300 relationship managers who are organized primarily around industry specialties. In 2007, Scotia Capital delivered record results for the fourth consecutive year.

The Scotiabank Story

The Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank) opened for business in 1832 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to facilitate the thriving trans-Atlantic trade between Britain, North America and the West Indies. Agents were quickly assigned to New York, Boston and London, providing a framework for the Bank’s operations and an early indication of its global aspirations. Scotiabank paid its first dividend to shareholders a year later - the first in an unbroken history of dividend payments that continues to this day.

National Expansion

Beginning in the 1880s, Scotiabank moved westward across Canada. By the early 1900s, a coast-to-coast branch network had been established, and its headquarters moved to Toronto. This expansion was accelerated by amalgamations with the Union Bank of Prince Edward Island (1882), Bank of New Brunswick (1913), Metropolitan Bank (1914) and Bank of Ottawa (1919).

The post-Second World War economic boom ushered in new growth for Scotiabank. Among the many innovations pioneered by Scotiabank during this period: Scotia Plan Loans, one of Canada’s first consumer lending products; the public trading of gold; and the appointment of the first Canadian women as branch managers.

When the financial services sector deregulated in the late 1980s and 1990s, the Bank further diversified its Canadian operations through major acquisitions, including investment dealer McLeod Young Weir (1987), and trust companies Montreal Trust (1994) and National Trust (1997).

International Reach

Scotiabank’s first office outside of Canada opened in the grain trade capital of Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A., in 1885, later moving to Chicago in 1892. In 1889, the Bank opened a branch in Kingston, Jamaica, to facilitate the trading of sugar, rum and fish. It was the first branch of a Canadian bank to open outside the United States or United Kingdom and formed the base of what would become a thriving network spanning some 25 countries throughout the Caribbean and Central America - making Scotiabank the largest bank in this region.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Scotiabank began extending its network into Asia, and by the 1990s, had also expanded its presence in Central and South America, making it one of the world’s most truly international banks.

In 2006, the Scotiabank Group’s presence in Latin America is evident through majority-controlled Grupo Financiero Scotiabank in Mexico, Scotiabank El Salvador, Scotiabank de Costa Rica, Scotiabank Sud Americano in Chile and Scotiabank Peru, as well as affiliate Banco del Caribe in Venezuela.

Canada Business Directory @ January 17, 2009