Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Royal Bank of Canada has agreed to pay $13.5-billion in cash for HSBC Bank Canada in what is the largest domestic banking deal on record.
The acquisition, at a scale not seen in Canada in decades, would secure RBC's spot as the country's largest bank as it looks to establish itself as the hub for a more globalized clientele.
"It's a unique, once in a generation opportunity to leverage all the investments we've already made in building a world-class retail and commercial bank," said chief executive Dave McKay on an analyst call.
The deal will see it take over about $134 billion in HSBC assets including a significant mortgage book, but RBC sees it more as a way to add to its client base. That includes the commercial side as well as wealthy clients and newcomers.
"That we're bringing in, first and foremost, commercial banking capability, globally connected clients, trade finance and multi-currency accounts, and preferential access to the next generation of clients," said McKay.
The bank expects to achieve cost savings of about $740 million for 2024, or about 55 per cent of HSBC Canada's current expense base, through a combination of integrating technology, closures among the 130 branches, and job cuts.
Neil McLaughlin, group head of personal and commercial banking at RBC, said there will be reductions but the bank does hope to absorb many of the 4,200 current HSBC Canada employees.
"There are obviously places we will not require the same number of FTE (full-time equivalent jobs) to service the combined client base. We have looked at that, and we feel very strongly that the number of open jobs we have across our business, and looking at where those FTE's are, we'll be able to welcome those employees in."
The deal will require approval from the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, the Competition Bureau, and the Ministry of Finance, but McKay said that as HSBC Canada has a market share of two per cent or less, he doesn't see areas of concern.
"We are not aware of any areas where the bureau is likely to have concern," said McKay. "This is still a relatively small bank by market share."
RBC expects the deal to close by late 2023 subject to closing conditions and regulatory approval.
Global banking giant HSBC Holdings PLC said earlier this year that it was reviewing strategic options for its Canadian subsidiary including the possible sale of the operations.
HSBC Group chief executive Noel Quinn said the bank decided to sell the Canadian business after a thorough review that concluded that there was a material value upside from selling.
"The deal makes strategic sense for both parties, and RBC will take the business to the next level," Quinn said in a statement.
"Our group strategy is unchanged, and closing this transaction will free up additional capital to invest in growing our core businesses and to return to shareholders."
The last time Canada's banking industry saw a deal of this scale was TD Bank Group's acquisition of Canada Trust in 1999 for about $8 billion, which is the equivalent of about $13.1 billion adjusted for inflation.
TD made the deal after the federal government blocked proposed mergers between RBC and Bank of Montreal as well as between TD and CIBC in 1998, which established a convention that mergers between the Big Five banks would not be allowed to go ahead.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 29, 2022
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
After a lengthy series of instructions from Justice Dan Cornell, a Sudbury jury is deliberating whether to find a suspect guilty of three counts of manslaughter or three counts of murder.
President Joe Biden has called Japan and India “xenophobic” countries that do not welcome immigrants, lumping the two with adversaries China and Russia as he tried to explain their economic circumstances and contrasted the four with the U.S. on immigration.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.