Employment worldwide
RBC’s history has been driven by our ability to expand to new frontiers, and we now have operations in more than 30 countries. As we have grown our businesses outside of Canada, we have also added to our international employee base.

As little as three years ago, we had a few hundred employees in the United States, and a few thousand around the world. Now, we employ more than 16,000 people outside of Canada.

2004 fiscal year
(ended October 31, 2004)

	Number of employees	Full-time equivalent positions
Canada	55,340	46,386
United States	12,600	12,377
International	3,936	3,803
Total	71,876	62,566

Taxes
In fiscal 2004, RBC Financial Group paid $2.2 billion in taxes worldwide.

Purchase of goods and services
In 2004, RBC spent $3.7 billion on goods and services from national, regional and local suppliers of all sizes.

Our Strategic Sourcing Group is responsible for sourcing significant products and services used across RBC, as well as for maintaining a disciplined process to keep our supply chain fair, open and competitive.

Our procurement policies are inclusive and aim to promote sustainable business practices and economic development where possible and appropriate.

RBC is a founding member of the Canadian Aboriginal and Minority Supplier Council, established in October 2004. This will open opportunities for entrepreneurs among Canada’s native population and visible minorities. RBC has been a member of the Council’s U.S. affiliate, the National Minority Supplier Development Council, since 2002.

In 2004, our U.S. Supplier Diversity Program prepared its first annual report, tracking nearly US$3.5 million of purchases in the U.S. from suppliers identified as minority- or women-owned or disabled/ disadvantaged; a baseline for future targets.

Social and environmental policies and practices are among criteria ranked and considered when awarding contracts through our Requests for Proposal (RFP).

As appropriate to a specific RFP, RBC’s Strategic Sourcing Group may ask prospective vendors to detail their environmental performance, manufacturing process, employment practices, safety record, human rights performance and audit processes.

We’ve introduced electronic invoicing to make business transactions more efficient and ensure small and medium-sized business owners can compete alongside national or larger suppliers. We provide companies with the opportunity to introduce themselves via our website, to increase their chances of being invited to compete for a purchasing relationship.

We also use an e-procurement program to manage the purchase of certain goods and services in Canada and plans are underway to implement this technology across most of the North American companies of RBC Financial Group. Buying goods and services electronically lowers the cost of processing transactions, and allows for better contract compliance and speedier cash flow to our suppliers.

For more information, visit rbc.com/sourcing/index