Overview
The Big Five banks, listed in order of market capitalization on the Toronto Stock Exchange as of December 31, 2011, with their current corporate brand names and corporate profiles according to their latest annual report, all monetary amounts are in billions of Canadian dollars, are:
| Official names | Bank brand | Headquarters | Assets | Deposits | Capitalization | Branches (Canada only) |
Employees (Full-time equivalent) |
Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Bank of Canada Banque Royale du Canada |
RBC Royal Bank RBC Banque Royale |
Montreal (legal) Toronto (operational) |
$751.7 | $444.2 | $73.0 | 1,338 | 68,480 | |
| Toronto-Dominion Bank Banque Toronto-Dominion |
TD Canada Trust | Toronto | $686.4 | $481.1 | $70.5 | 1,150 | 65,930 | |
| Bank of Nova Scotia Banque de Nouvelle-Écosse |
Scotiabank Banque Scotia |
Toronto (operational) Halifax (domicile) |
$575.3 | $396.4 | $57.5 | 1,030 | 75,362 | |
| Bank of Montreal Banque de Montréal |
BMO Bank of Montreal BMO Banque de Montréal |
Montreal (legal) Toronto (operational) |
$477.4 | $302.9 | $34.8 | 920 | 47,180 | |
| Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Banque Canadienne Impériale de Commerce |
CIBC | Toronto | $353.7 | $255.4 | $28.3 | ~1,100 | 42,239 |
In modern history, Royal Bank has always been the largest by a significant margin. Up to the late 1990s, CIBC was the second largest, followed by Bank of Montreal, Scotiabank, and TD Bank. During the late 1990s and beyond, this ranking changed due to several reorganizations. Royal Bank acquired Royal Trust, then the second-largest trust in Canada, in 1993, while Scotiabank purchased National Trust in 1997. As Scotiabank found no merger partners among the other banks in the big five group, it instead expanded its international operations and passed the Bank of Montreal in size. TD Bank merged with Canada Trust, which was for a long time the largest trust in Canada, thus vaulting TD temporarily into the number two spot. While there were no major changes to Bank of Montreal, CIBC's unsuccessful foray into the US market led it to shed its assets there, dropping it to the number five spot.
Read more about this topic: Big Five (banks)