Royalty in its blood

RBC Capital Markets provides investment banking products and services to institutions, corporations, governments, and high-net-worth clients around the world.  It has more than 7,100 employees who work out of 70 offices in 15 countries and serve clients throughout North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. RBC Capital Markets is part of the Royal Bank of Canada, which was founded in 1869 and today has $896 billion in assets and 79,000 employees. The Royal Bank of Canada has one of the highest credit ratings of any financial institution, and by market capitalization, it ranks among the 15 largest banks in the world and top five in North America. Until 2001, RBC Capital Markets was known as RBC Dominion Securities. The former Dominion Securities was created in 1901 and purchased by the Royal Bank of Canada in 1988. More recently, RBC Capital Markets held on during 2008 when the worldwide recession hit. In 2008, the bank also hired nearly a dozen former Bear Stearns employees. Since then, RBCCM has added more than 100 high-profile bankers and traders from other bulge-bracket firms. For many years, the firm has had a leading presence in Canada, consistently topping the investment banking league tables in the country. It has also been gaining ground in the U.S. and global league tables, ranked in recent years among the top 15 firms in U.S. as well as worldwide M&A deal volume.