National Bank of Canada

Founded more than 150 years ago in Quebec City, National Bank of Canada is one of the oldest financial institutions in North America. After an eventful history of mergers and acquisitions, of political and business clashes, the bank has nowadays become one of the giants in the world of finance: as of January, 2009, it has assets amounting to 137 billion dollars (the assets under management and administration are worth 189 billion dollars) and stock market capitalization of 5.5 billion dollars.

National Bank of Canada is a member of Canadian Bankers Association and Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation. Its shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker NA. The bank has more than 440 branches in different parts of the world (among the foreign cities that host offices of the bank are Hong Kong, Havana, Paris, and Nassau). The majority of its branches, however, are situated in Quebec and Ontario, including its headquarters, which are based in Montreal. As a result of this geographical distribution, the majority of the bank’s 2.4 million clients are French-speaking; in fact, National Bank of Canada is much more often referred to under its French name Banque Nationale du Canada.

As befits the 7th largest financial company in Canada, the bank provides a wide range of products and services such as lending, deposit and cash management, mortgage and personal loans, lines of credit, asset management, investment and pension schemes, various insurance policies, etc. The bank offers fixed rate, variable rate, and made-to-measure mortgage solutions. The wide array of insurance packages includes home and automobile insurances, travel insurance, health and medical care, and life critical illness, and disability. The experts at the National Bank Insurance Firm offer assistance in choosing the right insurance package in view of the client’s needs and financial profile.

The high quality of these products and services has been recognized by many authoritative institutions over the years. For example, in July, 2009, The Banker Magazine published a list with the world’s top 1000 banks where it ranked them according to their stability and capital strength. In this list, National Bank Financial Group, the organization which owns National Bank of Canada, took the prestigious 136th place.

But the bank’s prestige is due not just to the excellent services it offers – its attitude towards its 17 000 employees has won it much praise as well. Thus, in 2006 The Globe & Mail’s Report on Business magazine published a list of the 50 Best Employers in Canada, and National Bank of Canada was featured thanks to the original, motivating, and rewarding approach it had – and still has – towards its work force.

The bank’s brave and innovate employment policy, which favours ethnical and cultural diversity on the workplace, has been distinguished with numerous awards such as the Maurice Pollack Award, which was presented by the Canadian Minister of Immigration and Cultural Communities in June, 2007.

The bank’s respect for women has been just as praiseworthy: with 3 women in its Board of Directors, National Bank of Canada is one of the 10 Canadian companies with the biggest female representation on their boards.

Furthermore in 2008, the bank and its employees made donations to hundreds of Canadian charity organizations, thus improving the health, education, and living conditions of many destitute people and producing positive reactions in the local communities.
Because of this combination of varied products and services, bold human resources policy, and high social responsibility, National Bank of Canada has become not just an ever more preferred business partner, but also a true role model in the world of commerce.

Commercial Banks Guide > National Bank of Canada