Top 5 banks in Canada — Biggest Canadian Banks Overview

So let’s get to talk about the banking sector in Canada, the land of beautiful lakes & mountain ranges, and the friendliest people.

This is where all of the top 5 banks in Canada have their headquarters located.

Toronto is really a global player, with its metropolitan area, housing a population of about 6.1 million people, making it Canada’s largest city.

The year before last, the 6th largest banks paid almost $10 billion (USD) in taxes, and the Financial sector as a whole contributes 6.7% to Canada’s GDP.

Are you ready?

Let’s delve right in.

Top 5 banks in Canada

5. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce — The bank was Founded in 1961 when the two biggest chartered banks in Canada, the Canadian bank of Commerce (est. 1867) & The Imperial Bank of Canada (est. 1875) merged together, to form the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC).

Fast forward about 60 years and the bank now has well over $600 billion (USD) in total assets and a total workforce of about 40,000 employees.

The bank mainly focuses on retail and small business banking which resulted in a nice $14.6 billion in revenue of which the bank netted about $3 billion in total income.

One way in which the bank achieved this, was by issuing Canada’s first ever paper currency in the form of this CAD$20 banknote.

People could then exchange this at the bank for silver or gold.

At this time there really wasn’t a uniform banknote, different banks used their own paper currency and many Canadians were even using multiple currencies, including, American dollars, British pounds, colonial currencies, and even the Spanish Peso.

Because it’s just not a party until the Spanish have invaded right?

They were everywhere.

Currently, the Bank of Montreal has its headquarters in Toronto and the bank has a total asset pool of around $743 billion USD.

A year before last, the bank made $17.8 billion in total revenue and netted about $4.5 billion dollars.

In addition to this, the bank serves around 8 million customers in Canada and about 2 million

customers in the United States.

3. Bank of Nova Scotia or more commonly known as Scotiabank — Was founded in 1832 in Halifax Nova scotia.

But in 1900 the Bank packed up its belongings, booked a train, and traveled the full 1115 miles to Toronto to set up its new Headquarters over there.

In the post-WWII economic boom, Scotiabank was pioneering some very interesting new products and policies.

This included Canada’s first consumer lending products, called the Scotia Plan Loans.

And next to this banks also started offering public trading of gold.

So, Today the bank is well established in both North and South America and has a total asset pool of $890 billion dollars (USD), and does about $24.5 billion dollars (USD) in revenue of which it nets around 5.4 billion dollars (USD).

The main focus of Scotiabank is on Corporate & Investment banking and Global Capital Markets.

Currently, the bank has well over 80,000 employees worldwide and it is listed on both the Toronto

Stock Exchange (TSX: BNS) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BNS).

2. Royal Bank of Canada — Today the bank does $47 billion dollars (USD) in revenue and has a net income of around $9 billion dollars (USD).

With an all-time high of $10.1 billion dollars in net income in 2019, this bank truly knows how to make money.

Going back to its humble beginnings, the bank started out in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1864, where it financed the lumber and timber industries.

Here it mainly supports the merchants in the area and became known as the Merchant Bank.

The bank’s Personal and Commercial banking operations stretch over 34 countries.

The RBC is also a major player in the world of Wealth Management for retail investors and International Investment Banking services.

The Royal Bank of Canada is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the New York Stock

Exchange and yes even on the Swiss Stock Exchange.

I guess this allows for some nice deductibles for some Alpine skiing.

1. Toronto Dominion Bank — Now at the top of the list, we find this the biggest bank in Canada, with a very fitting name.

It came into existence in 1955, when the Bank of Toronto and the Dominion Bank merged

to create the beautiful behemoth that is now TD.

For a more accurate origin story, we have to travel a bit further back, one whole century to be exact, to 1855 when the Bank of Toronto was Founded by a group of millers and merchants.

The most exciting milestone is reached in 1960 when Toronto Dominion Bank purchases its first

ever computer.

Nowadays the bank has many more computers and services with over 25 million customers worldwide.

The bank does about $42 billion dollars (USD), in revenue which it gets to keep around $9.3 billion dollars.

With a total assets pool of $1.34 trillion dollars, and over 90,000 employees worldwide, the Toronto Dominion Banks, ranks at the number 5 position in the whole of North America.

This completes the list of the Top 5 biggest banks in Canada.