Allan Taylor
Chairman and CEO
1989

Allan Taylor: We're changing the old businesses, the ones that we knew so well. We're entering new businesses, the ones that maybe we don't know so well. We live in a marketplace that's driven by new competitors and new technologies that we must learn to understand. We have a 50-year record as Canada's leading bank. But success is never final. It must be earned and then re-earned.

With the appointments in 1986 of CEO Allan Taylor and President John Cleghorn, the Bank's overriding strategy took concrete form. But they both knew that becoming Canada's leading financial services group meant a back-to-the-basics rethink of customer service, management by the facts and continuing change.

John Cleghorn
President and COO
re: 1986-94

John Cleghorn: The key thing is that top management are not going to be the sole ingredients or the sole agents for change. What we have to do is figure out where are those areas of improvement that we want to be in getting back to management by fact, and set our sights for improvement, because in virtually everything we do, we can improve.

And if we can do that and get that sense of culture, that continuous improvement is not a threat, is not a challenge to the way you did things before, but it's just meeting the ever-increasing expectations of your customers, your employees and your shareholders.

The Bank Act of 1990 shook the four pillars of Canadian finance. For the chartered banks, it signaled a fundamental move from their traditional role as lenders to one of managing the wealth of an increasingly mature population, as the Act opened their doors to expanded insurance, brokerage and trust services.