The Bank of Nova Scotia (French: Banque de la Nouvelle-Écosse), operating as Scotiabank (French: Banque Scotia), is a Canadian multinational bank. It is the third largest bank in Canada by deposits and market capitalization. It serves more than 23 million customers in over 55 countries around the world and offers a range of products and services including personal and commercial banking, wealth management, corporate and investment banking. With assets of $896.487 billion, Scotiabank shares trade on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges.

The bank was founded in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1832, and moved its executive offices to Toronto, Ontario, in 1900. Scotiabank has billed itself as "Canada's most international bank" due to its acquisitions primarily in Latin America and the Caribbean, and also in Europe and India. Through its subsidiary ScotiaMocatta, it is a member of the London Bullion Market Association and one of five banks that participates in the London gold fixing.

Scotiabank's Institution Number (or bank number) is 002. The company ranked at number 41 on the SNL Financial World's 100 biggest banks listing, September 2013 and is under the leadership of President and CEO Brian J. Porter.

The bank was incorporated by the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia on March 30, 1832, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with William Lawson (1772–1848) serving as the first president. Scotiabank was founded in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1832 under the name of The Bank of Nova Scotia. The bank intended to facilitate the trans-Atlantic trade of the time. Later, in 1883, The Bank of Nova Scotia acquired the Union Bank of Prince Edward Island, although most of the bank's expansion efforts in the century took the form of branch openings.

The bank launched its branch banking system by opening in Windsor, Nova Scotia. The expansion was limited to the Maritimes until 1882, when the bank moved west by opening a branch in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Manitoba branch later closed but the bank continued to expand into the American Midwest. This included opening a branch in Minneapolis in 1885 which later transferred to Chicago in 1892. Following the collapse of the Commercial Bank of Newfoundland and Union Bank of Newfoundland on December 10, 1894; The Bank of Nova Scotia established on December 15, 1894, in Newfoundland,

In 1899, the bank opened a branch in Boston, Massachusetts.

The bank opened a branch in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1889 to facilitate the trading of sugar, rum and fish. This was Scotiabank's first move into the Caribbean and historically the first branch of a Canadian bank opened outside of the United States or the United Kingdom. By the end of the 19th century, the bank was represented in all of the Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba.

In 1900, the bank moved its headquarters to Toronto, Ontario.

The bank continued to expand in the 20th century, although its growth now took the form of acquisitions rather than branch openings.

In its early expansion, the bank clearly followed trade and its customers' businesses rather than pursuing a strategy of expansion into international financial centres. Scotiabank is a member of the Global ATM Alliance, a joint venture of several major international banks that allows customers of the banks to use their ATM cards or check cards at certain other banks within the Global ATM Alliance without fees when traveling internationally. Other participating banks are Barclays (United Kingdom), Bank of America (United States), BNP Paribas (France and Ukraine through UkrSibbank), Deutsche Bank (Germany), and Westpac (Australia and New Zealand).

One of the biggest challenges according to Scotia's CEO Rick Waugh is electronic espionage. It is thought that China and Russia engage in electronic spying, and Scotiabank has devoted enormous resources in its effort to protect the privacy of its customers.

Scotiabank has also spent almost $100 million implementing a controversial system to report to the United States the account holdings of close to one million Canadians of American origin, and their Canadian-born spouses. Scotiabank has been forced to implement this system in order to comply with FATCA. According to the Financial Post FATCA requires Canadian banks to provide information to the United States including total assets, account balances, account numbers, transactions and more, and includes assets held jointly with Canadian-born spouses and other family members.

Throughout the 20th century, the bank grew not only in size, but also in breadth of products and services. Progress was conditioned by changing consumer needs, legal changes, or acquisitions of external service providers. Major changes include:

The bank has amalgamated with several other Canadian financial institutions through the years, and purchased several other banks overseas:

Many former branches of Montreal Trust and National Trust were rebranded "Scotiabank & Trust", and continue to operate as such.

In June 2005, David Berry, a very successful Canadian Scotiabank trader who had built a $75M/year business in trading preferred shares was fired on the grounds that he had committed securities regulatory violations.

At the time, as part of a 20% direct drive deal, he was making more than double the CEO's salary and Scotiabank management had already taken steps to limit his compensation.

The regulatory violation allegations from his former employer, left him unemployable to Scotiabank's competitors despite the appeal of potentially adding more than $75M/year to their equity trading profits.

Documents delivered to the media showing that Scotiabank management had sought advice on terminating Berry prior to the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) violation accusation, and the results of questioning during the IIROC inquiries strongly suggest that the securities charges were part of a plan by Scotiabank senior management to remove Berry from his position and simultaneously prevent him from becoming their competitor.

In a ruling on January 15, 2013, more than seven years after the initial accusation, a hearing panel of the IIROC dismissed all charges against Berry.

David Berry filed a $100M wrongful dismissal lawsuit against Scotiabank. As of January 2015, and nine years after Berry was terminated, Scotiabank settled with Berry for an undisclosed amount. Barry Critchley, who followed the story since its beginning, wrote an article on November 6, 2014, in which he believes Scotiabank's $55 million reported legal charges would likely be connected to the $100 million lawsuit; but it is unlikely to ever be known.

In 2014, the bank reached a settlement in a class-action lawsuit that covered thousands of workers owed more than a decade of unpaid overtime. The lawsuit included 16,000 Scotiabank employees across Canada who worked as personal banking officers, senior personal banking officers, financial advisors, and small business account managers from January 1, 2000, to December 1, 2013. The 2007 lawsuit was similar to a class-action filed by Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) bank teller Dara Fresco of Toronto.

Under terms of the settlement, employees received 1.5 times their standard wage at the time, but no interest. Scotiabank also paid legal fees of $10.45 million. Plaintiffs' counsels were David O'Connor of Roy O'Connor and Louis Sokolov of Sotos LLP.

A 2001 investigation into the murder of Maru Oropesa, a Scotiabank branch manager in Mexico City revealed US$14 million missing from the branch. Initially, investigators found that Oropesa and Jaime Ross, her former boss, had illegally transferred US$5 million from client investment accounts. The money was eventually transferred to the United States where it was used to purchase three aircraft. As the investigation continued, officials found an additional $9 million missing and involvement of 16 other bank employees in the fraud. Ross was convicted of fraud and money laundering for his role and sentenced to 15 years. Scotiabank terminated the other 16 employees, but did not prosecute them.

Scotiabank has four business lines:

The Scotiabank Bright Future program is the bank's global philanthropic vision. The bank's multinational reach has provided a unique opportunity to help people around the world through corporate giving and employee-volunteer programs that span across six pillars: education, health care, social services, sports, environment and arts and culture.

In 2013, the bank contributed $62 million in donations and sponsorships to community causes around the world. Scotiabank's employees spent 424,000 hours in 2013 volunteering and fundraising through formal community programs.

Scotiabank's corporate social responsibility EcoLiving program, encourages and facilitates environmentally preferable construction and renovation of homes. The company also has internal programs related to environmental responsibility and ethical financial and lending practices.

Scotiabank has a strong presence in Thailand through its 48.99% owned affiliate, Thanachart Bank. With the recent acquisition of Siam City Bank, Thanachart Bank is now the 6th largest bank (by assets) in Thailand with over 16,000 staff serving more than four million customers through 680 branches and 2,100 ATMs across the country.

Scotiabank's former President, CEO and Chairman Cedric Ritchie died on March 20, 2016. He was a President of Scotiabank from 1972, and CEO and Chairman from 1974 to 1995. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada for his extensive knowledge of banking and commerce in 1981. Under his leadership, Scotiabank expanded into more than 40 countries and grew to 33,000 employees.

Scotiabank has unionized relationships with employees in a number of locations around the world. In Canada, the sole unionized workplace is the domestic banking branch in Deep River, Ontario.

BNS is a member of the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) and registered member with the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC), a federal agency insuring deposits at all of Canada's chartered banks. It is also a member of:

A Scotiabank branch on Queen Street, Toronto.

Scotiabank branch in Belize City, Belize.

A Scotiabank in Thunder Bay, Ontario

Scotiabank branch in Christ Church, Barbados.

Scotiabank in Richmond Hill, Ontario

Scotiabank Place in Ottawa; renamed Canadian Tire Centre in 2013

Scotiabank ATMs at PATH Toronto.

Canada

International

Media related to Scotiabank at Wikimedia Commons