Canadian multinational bank, Bank of Nova Scotia (operating as Scotiabank), recently announced that a Global Wealth Management business line is in the works, according to the press release published by Cision Canada. This new business line will be launched on November 1 this year.
In line with the bank’s dedication to developing effective financial management strategies, Scotiabank is concentrating on reaching new extents in Canada and various international markets. Meanwhile, its operations in Canada will remain focused on facilitating progress on personal and commercial banking, as well as insurance businesses.
The bank funnelled its funds towards this endeavour after it acquired MD Financial Management and Jarislowsky Fraser (JFL), both independent investment firms.
BNN Bloomberg’s interview with analyst Paul Bagnell revealed that the execution of this plan is a move towards reversing the bank’s poor performance in the past year. This way, it seeks to overperform this year through its high-value acquisitions of MD and JFL.
These acquisitions were made with only a 6-month range, revealed Bagnell. JFL, the larger of the two firms, was acquired by Scotiabank in May 2018 with an asset of $166 billion. On the other hand, MD was acquired in October 2018 with an asset of $49 billion.
This new global business comes with a restructuring of the bank’s wealth management unit, as well as an executive shuffle. Once this business group launches on November 1, 2019, it will be headed by Glen Gowland, currently the executive vice president of wealth management in the Canadian banking arm of Scotiabank.
This new group was noted to be a move away from what the bank sees as non-core businesses. Meanwhile, Bagnell notes that the bank’s key source of profit is the international banking franchise. He also notes that Scotiabank might refrain from doing big acquisitions this year.
