1910 - 1925

Filling in the Map: Growth by Amalgamation

The outright purchase of another bank - usually in exchange for Royal Bank stock - gave Royal Bank instant access to new territory and a much needed additional pool of trained staff.

Traders Bank of Canada staff, Elmira, Ontario, 1895

Beginning in 1910 with the Union Bank of Halifax, the process continued through the acquisition of the Traders Bank of Canada (1912), the Quebec Bank (1917), the Northern Crown Bank (1918) and finally the Union Bank of Canada in 1925.

More than anything else, these acquisitions vaulted Royal Bank over its competitors and made it Canada's largest bank by the mid-1920s with 668 branches and a staff of 8,500.

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Did You Know? Did you know that when Sydney Dobson, president of Royal Bank from 1946 to 1949, began his bank career as a "junior" in Sydney, Nova Scotia, he traveled a considerable distance each day by rowboat to the branch? His starting salary was $8.33 a month.

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