BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA

The Bank of Nova Scotia, which has taken as its brand the simpler name of Scotiabank, likes to style itself as Canada’s most international bank. It’s a fair assessment. Along with being the second largest bank in Canada by assets and the second largest by market capitalization (Royal Bank of Canada is first in both of these areas), Scotiabank also has a more extensive foreign network than any of its rivals. According to its 2007 Annual Report, Scotiabank had a presence in 50 countries. Its international division had total revenues of $4 billion and a total income of $1.2 billion. Scotiabank’s domestic operations were only slightly larger, with total revenues of $6.1 billion and total income of $1.6 billion. (All figures are in Canadian dollars.)

The Bank of Nova Scotia’s global aspirations seemed obvious from the beginning. Though now headquartered in Toronto, where it moved in 1900, it was founded in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1832 to provide financial services to the then booming trade between Britain, North America, and the West Indies. Almost immediately, agents were sent to New York, Boston, and London. By the late 1800s the Bank of Nova Scotia had expanded to the United States and Jamaica. And by the early 1900s a network of Canadian branches stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific provinces had been established.

In recent years, much of the bank’s international attention has been focused on Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2007, it purchased Banco del Desarrollo, Chile's seventh largest bank, for $1.02 billion (U.S. dollars). It also has a substantial presence in El Salvador, Costa Rica, Peru, and Jamaica.

But it is in Mexico that the Bank of Nova Scotia has its biggest foreign investment — Scotiabank Inverlat, which deals in all aspects of personal banking, business banking, and property and auto loans. The Bank of Nova Scotia’s 2007 annual report noted that it was “expanding rapidly in Mexico to capitalize on the growing demand for banking services in this market.” In 2007, Scotiabank Inverlat opened 86 new branches en route to a stated goal of 800 branches by 2010. Currently, Scotiabank Inverlat has more than 500 branches across Mexico, and is the country’s seventh largest commercial bank.

Another of the Bank of Nova Scotia’s Mexican assets is Scotiabank Inverlat Casa de Bolsa, an investment bank providing investment advice, equity trading, money market, hedging and futures products, and corporate finance products through 45 branches in Mexico’s major cities.

In its 2007 Annual Report, the Bank of Nova Scotia broke down its net income by geographic regions. It listed net income from Mexico at $505 million (Canadian), which was greater than its net income from U.S. operations. Net income from all other international areas combined was only $861 million (Canadian). The net income from Mexico had dropped slightly from 2006, when it was $547 million (Canadian), but still reflected a substantial increase over 2005, when it had been $337 million (Canadian). Clearly, Mexico has been a profitable market for the bank.

For more on the Bank of Nova Scotia, see:

The Bank of Nova Scotia, Wikipedia

The Bank of Nova Scotia Company Profile