The Canadians Are Coming!

The four major Canadian banks have been heading south, each with a somewhat different strategy. In part, the move is a response to the government's denial of two merger proposals involving pairs of the four major banks in 1998. The Royal Bank of Canada is the largest of the four banks, with the equivalent of US$199.63 billion. It has acquired several lesser-known U.S. banking operations: Prism Financial (Chicago), Dain Rauscher (Minneapolis), and Centura Banks (North Carolina). In her article in the Wall Street Journal, Elena Cherney notes that the bank's management is now "trying to put the pieces together." Toronto-Dominion Bank has followed a different strategy. It has sought to gain economies of scale by acquiring a major interest in the discount broker, TD Waterhouse Group Inc., one of the three largest discount brokers in the U.S.

However, the invasion is not all one way. Associates Financial Services of Canada, Ltd. (owned by Citigroup) has purchased Hamilton Discount Corp. The transaction made Associates the largest private-label card issuer in Canada.