The Canadian Connection

“When you hear RBC, you don’t think Wall Street, so from a perception standpoint, being Canadian helps,” says Mike Kavanagh, chief administrative officer and head, Independent Business Channels, at RBC Wealth Management, who is leading RBC’s push into the RIA custody business.

“The whole Canadian banking system came out of the financial crisis very strong,” he says, particularly Royal Bank of Canada (ticker: RY), Canada’s largest, and “the 12th largest bank in the world, which continued to grow during the crisis.” Saying that all of RBC’s businesses are “conservatively run,” Royal Bank of Canada, notes Kavanagh, is “one of the only AAA-rated banks in the world, and no one else has our global reach.”