Scotiabank

The 19th century

The bank was incorporated by the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia on March 30, 1832, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with William Lawson (1772–1848) serving as the first president. Scotiabank was founded in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1832 under the name of The Bank of Nova Scotia. The bank intended to facilitate the trans-Atlantic trade of the time. Later, in 1883, The Bank of Nova Scotia acquired the Union Bank of Prince Edward Island, although most of the bank's expansion efforts in the century took the form of branch openings.

The bank launched its branch banking system by opening in Windsor, Nova Scotia. The expansion was limited to the Maritimes until 1882, when the bank moved west by opening a branch in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Manitoba branch later closed but the bank continued to expand into the American Midwest. This included opening a branch in Minneapolis in 1885 which later transferred to Chicago in 1892. Following the collapse of the Commercial Bank of Newfoundland and Union Bank of Newfoundland on December 10, 1894; The Bank of Nova Scotia established on December 15, 1894, in Newfoundland,

In 1899, the bank opened a branch in Boston, Massachusetts.

In the meantime, the bank opened a branch in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1889 to facilitate the trading of sugar, rum and fish. This was Scotiabank's first move into the Caribbean and historically the first branch of a Canadian bank opened outside of the United States or the United Kingdom. By the end of the 19th century, the bank was represented in all of the Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba.

In 1900, the bank's headquarters were moved to Toronto, Ontario.

The 20th and 21st century

The bank continued to expand in the 20th century, although its growth now took the form of acquisitions rather than branch openings.

In its early expansion, the bank clearly followed trade and its customers' businesses rather than pursuing a strategy of expansion into international financial centres. Scotiabank is a member of the Global ATM Alliance, a joint venture of several major international banks that allows customers of the banks to use their ATM cards or check cards at certain other banks within the Global ATM Alliance without fees when traveling internationally. Other participating banks are Barclays (United Kingdom), Bank of America (United States), BNP Paribas (France and Ukraine through UkrSibbank), Deutsche Bank (Germany), and Westpac (Australia and New Zealand).

The 21st century

One of the biggest challenges according to Scotia's CEO Rick Waugh is electronic espionage. It is thought that China and Russia engage in electronic spying, and scotia has devoted enormous resources in its effort to protect the privacy of its customers.

Scotia has also spent almost $100 million, implementing a controversial system to report to the United States the account holdings of close to one million Canadians of American origin, and their Canadian born spouses. Scotia has been forced to implement this system in order to comply with FATCA. According to the Financial Post FATCA requires Canadian banks to provide information to the United States including total assets, account balances, account numbers, transactions and more, and includes assets held jointly with Canadian-born spouses and other family members.

Portfolio evolution

Throughout the 20th century, the bank grew not only in size, but also in breadth of products and services. Progress was conditioned by changing consumer needs, legal changes, or acquisitions of external service providers. A short list follows:

Mergers and acquisitions

The bank has amalgamated with several other Canadian financial institutions through the years, and purchased several other banks overseas:

Many former branches of Montreal Trust and National Trust were rebranded "Scotiabank & Trust", and continue to operate as such.

Wrongful dismissal lawsuit

In June 2005, David Berry, a very successful Canadian Scotiabank trader who had built a $75M/year business in trading preferred shares was fired on the grounds that he had committed securities regulatory violations.

At the time, as part of a 20% direct drive deal, he was making more than double the CEO's salary and Scotiabank management had already taken steps to limit his compensation.

The regulatory violation allegations from his former employer, left him unemployable to Scotia's competitors despite the appeal of potentially adding more than $75M/year to their equity trading profits.

Documents delivered to the media showing that Scotia management had sought advice on terminating Berry prior to the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) violation accusation, and the results of questioning during the IIROC inquiries strongly suggest that the securities charges were part of a plan by Scotiabank senior management to remove Berry from his position and simultaneously prevent him from becoming their competitor.

In a ruling on January 15, 2013, more than seven years after the initial accusation, a hearing panel of the IIROC dismissed all charges against Berry.

David Berry has a filed a $100M wrongful dismissal lawsuit against Scotiabank. As of January 2015, and nine years after Berry was terminated, Scotia settled with Berry on an amount that cannot be disclosed. Barry Critchley, who has been following the story since inception, published an article on November 6, 2014 in which he believes Scotia's $55 million reported legal charges would likely be connected to the $100 million lawsuit; but it's unlikely to be ever found out.

Unpaid overtime lawsuit

In 2014 a settlement deal in a class-action lawsuit was reached . The agreement would cover thousands of workers for more than a decade of unpaid overtime.The lawsuit included 16,000 Scotiabank employees across Canada who worked as personal banking officers, senior personal banking officers, financial advisors, and small business account managers from January 1, 2000 to December 1, 2013. The lawsuit was filed in 2007, along with a similar class-action filed by CIBC bank teller Dara Fresco of Toronto. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce said previously that it intends to go to trial.

Employees would receive 1.5 times their standard wage at the time, but no interest. Scotiabank will also pay legal fees of $10.45 million in the case. Plaintiffs' counsels were David O'Connor of Roy O'Connor and Louis Sokolov of Sotos LLP.

Fraud in Mexico

In 2001, $14 million was discovered missing in from one of Scotia's branches in Mexico during an investigation into the murder of a branch manager, Maru Oropesa. Initially, the investigators found that Oropesa and Jaime Ross, her former boss, had illegally transferred $5 million from client investment accounts. The money was eventually transferred to the United States where it was used to purchase three aircraft. As the investigation continued, a total of $14 million was found missing and 16 other bank employees were involved in the fraud. Ross was convicted of fraud and money laundering for his role and sentenced to 15 years. The other 16 bank employees were fired by Scotiabank but were not prosecuted.

Operating units

Scotiabank has four business lines:

Sports

Culture

Corporate Social Responsibility

The Scotiabank Bright Future program is the bank's global philanthropic vision. The bank's multinational reach has provided a unique opportunity to help people around the world through corporate giving and employee-volunteer programs that span across six pillars: education, health care, social services, arts and culture, sports and environment.

In 2013, the bank contributed $62 million in donations and sponsorships to community causes around the world. Scotiabank's employees spent 424,000 hours in 2013 volunteering and fundraising through formal community programs.

Scotiabank's corporate social responsibility EcoLiving program, encourages and facilitates environmentally preferable construction and renovation of homes. The company also has internal programs related to environmental responsibility and ethical financial and lending practices.

Recent events

Scotiabank has a strong presence in Thailand through its 48.99% owned affiliate, Thanachart Bank. With the recent acquisition of Siam City Bank, Thanachart Bank is now the 6th largest bank (by assets) in Thailand with over 16,000 staff serving more than four million customers through 680 branches and 2,100 ATMs across the country.

Scotiabank's former President, CEO and Chairman Cedric Ritchie died on March 20, 2016. He was a President of Scotiabank from 1972, and CEO and Chairman from 1974 to 1995. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada for his extensive knowledge of banking and commerce in 1981. Under his leadership, Scotiabank expanded into more than 40 countries and grew to 33,000 employees.

Awards

Unionization

Scotiabank has unionized relationships with employees in a number of locations around the world. In Canada, the sole unionized workplace is the domestic banking branch in Deep River, Ontario.

Membership

BNS is a member of the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) and registered member with the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC), a federal agency insuring deposits at all of Canada's chartered banks. It is also a member of:

Branch and office locations

Canada

International