1920 - 1939

Banking Doldrums: Sagging Profits and Credibility

360 St. James Street

Weak national growth in the early 1920s and the global economic collapse of the 1930s hit Canadian banking hard. Amid these pressures, tight lending policies and branch closures helped to shore up the banks' financial position, but for the nation as a whole it had a deflationary effect and generated ill will towards the banking system. For the first time the banks also faced a credibility crisis as politicians and the general public - especially in the West - began to view the banks as economic impediments. Under Morris Wilson, president from 1934-1946, Royal Bank rebuilt both its credibility and its assets. An event of importance was the May 1928 move of the bank's head office from 147 St. James Street to the newly constructed and more accommodating 360 St. James Street building - then the tallest standing structure in the British Empire.

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Did You Know? Did you know that the Quebec Bank issued one of Canada's earliest bank notes? The bank issued its first $10.00 bill on May 1, 1819. Until 1944, each Canadian chartered bank issued its own money in denominations of $3.00 and higher - the Canadian government was responsible for issuing $1.00 and $2.00 bills.

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