1960 - 1979

"Everything we do now," Rowland Frazee, chairman and chief executive officer, told the New York Times in 1980, "we think globally no matter what type of business we're dealing with." In this photo, Frazee is presenting to Wan Li, China's executive vice-premier, the first of 5,000 spruce seedlings, a gift of Royal Bank to China to commemorate the opening of Royal Bank's representative office in Beijing, China, 1981.

In 1968, a study undertaken for the Royal Commission on the Status of Women determined that only 29 of Canada's 5,147 bank managers were women - Royal Bank had appointed its first woman manager in 1968. By the end of the next decade, Royal Bank had appointed two women to the Board of Directors (1976), created an Equal Employment Opportunity Co-ordinator (1977), and had appointed its first woman executive (1979).

In 1967, Royal Bank consolidated its agricultural banking products and services under the newly formed Agricultural Banking Services division in Winnipeg. Under the direction of agricultural specialist Doug McRorie, the department developed new products and new approaches to customer service such as the mobile banking office shown above in 1976, which met busy farmers "in the field."

Computers revolutionized the routine work of banking. Computer centres were opened across Canada to take over account maintenance and cheque clearing. On August 12, 1966, Royal Bank's first "Third Generation" computer and the first bank computer centre between Vancouver and Toronto was put into service in Winnipeg. Rowland Frazee, district general manager for Manitoba, activated the new reader-sorter.

During the 1960s Royal Bank accelerated its formal training programs. Even tellers, who traditionally had been trained on the job, were being sent to class as business in the branches became more complex. In this photo, a young management trainee, on course himself, is leading the session for new tellers - consolidating his own knowledge of the teller's role in the branch while, at the same time, working on his leadership and mentoring skills.