1899 - 1920

Nassau, Bahamas branch opened in 1908 with George Gamblin as manager. Gamblin, who was well known throughout the islands for his public service and who later became leader of the Government in the House of Assembly, built up a large business for the bank in the Bahamas. Between 1917 and 1947, Royal Bank was the only bank operating in the Colony. This stately branch building was built in 1922.

In 1919, Royal Bank established a Foreign Trade department to furnish Canadian traders with reliable statistics on the economies of Caribbean and Latin American countries. As a member of this department, Graham Towers, then a recently hired young economist, wrote this guide to foreign trade for bank staff. He also edited Royal Bank's Monthly Letter (now RBC Letter), at that time an economic newsletter. In 1934, Graham Towers was appointed the first governor of the newly formed Canadian central bank, the Bank of Canada.

Royal Bank opened its London, England branch in 1910 with a staff of four and modest premises at 2 Princess Street. In 1932, the branch moved to 6 Lothbury, the six-storey building pictured on the left that was built by Royal Bank to accommodate the 100 staff members that were working at this busy branch. Royal Bank was the first Canadian bank to erect premises in London. Across the street, the well-known pillars of the Bank of England are visible in the photo.

Decades of financing the movement of Canadian fish, timber and wheat prepared the bank well for the Caribbean sugar trade. Sugar was the dominant and most profitable export crop of Cuba and other Caribbean countries in the early years of the twentieth century. After 1920, however, volatile sugar prices played havoc with the economies of these countries and made for tough times for the Cuban branches of the bank.

This photograph of the staff of Santiago, Cuba branch illustrates the staffing of a typical southern branch. At the left of the photo one can see the manager, who would have been an experienced Canadian banker (note the heavy dark wool suit). Next to the manager, his "second in command," a young accountant with experience in a Canadian branch, followed by four junior staff members - young men, Canadian and Cuban, having the adventure of a lifetime working in a tropical branch.