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Product Responsibility
"Responsibility" may not be the first thing you
think of when it comes to how a bank develops its financial
products and services--at least not the same way you might
be concerned about how your child's toys are manufactured,
or how your car was designed. But mortgages and loans, bank
accounts and credit cards are all considered products, too,
and at RBC, we ensure that all the products and services we
develop for our clients align with our vision and values,
and are guided by our comprehensive Code of Conduct.
Our product responsibility initiatives include:
Responsible development of products
and services
RBC follows a defined, rigorous process before launching
any new product or significantly changing an existing one.
We evaluate products for a range of risks and ensure they
align with client needs, our Code of Conduct, laws and regulations,
and voluntary consumer protection codes that we have signed.
Approval levels within RBC correspond to the level of risk
identified for a particular product or service.
Low-carbon banking for consumers
One of our priorities is to provide products and
services that help our clients mitigate their environmental
impact. This includes online banking, electronic statements
and bill payment as well as education programs.
We encourage our clients to use electronic solutions that
replace the carbon-intensive activities involved in retail
banking such as travel and paper. For instance:
- We have introduced a new RBC High Interest eSavings Account®,
an online savings account that offers a premium interest
rate with the convenience and flexibility of doing everything
online without paying any fees.
- Clients have chosen electronic statements for more than
two million accounts.
- Clients have responded favourably to our guide to low-carbon
banking entitled Seven
Ways to Reduce Your Environmental Banking Footprint.
- We conducted research and assessed the value of introducing
additional "green" products and participated in
a UNEP FI North American Task Force initiative to review
environmental products and services at various banks around
the world.
Services for inner-city communities
Through our Cash & Save outlets, we provide services
such as cheque cashing, bill payment, wires and foreign exchange
in a few inner-city locations where people may not have bank
accounts. We charge lower fees for than those charged in higher-income
communities, and hire local community members to work as employees.
More on access to banking services for low income and underserved
clients.
Know your client rules
Know Your Client rules are key to investment and banking
clients' protection. Our employees are required to make all
necessary efforts to understand a client's profile, financial
and personal objectives before making recommendations relevant
to their needs. Our due diligence also covers compliance with
applicable securities, consumer protection, anti-money laundering,
anti-terrorism and economic sanctions legislation.
Socially responsible investing
Increasingly, investors are becoming interested in putting
their money where their values are. This is called "socially
responsible investing" or SRI. While the SRI market is
growing in North America, it is not yet mainstream. At RBC
we offer a number of products and services that could be defined
as "SRI":
- In Canada, RBC Asset Management offers three SRI funds
- the RBC Jantzi Balanced Fund, the RBC Jantzi Canadian
Equity Fund and the RBC Jantzi Global Equity Fund. With
the launch of these products in July 2007, RBC was the first
major Canadian bank to offer investors the option of socially
responsible investing (SRI). Learn more about the RBC
Jantzi Funds.
- Financial advisors within RBC Asset Management can help
clients screen their investments to ensure they are investing
in a socially responsible manner, using information provided
by Jantzi Research Associates. In addition, RBC's clients
have access to all the SRI funds in the Canadian marketplace
through our network of advisors.
- In the United States, RBC Dain Rauscher's SRI Wealth Management
Group, a specialized team of financial advisors based in
San Francisco, provides SRI expertise to clients across
the United States, including entrepreneurs, foundations,
unions, and pension funds. The team manages almost US$1
billion in responsibly invested assets.
RBC's SRI Wealth Management Group continues to expand its
portfolio by transitioning a greater number of pension funds,
foundation, investment organizations and others to socially
responsible investing, which includes climate change as a
principal theme.
Responsible lending
RBC provides credit and banking services to companies in
many industries. Due to client confidentiality, our Annual
Report only discloses credit by major industry groups, not
by individual sub-sectors or companies. However, we have policies
that cover areas of particular concern including environmental
issues. Learn more about our approach to environmentally responsible
lending.
Transactions that are directly related to trade in or manufacturing
of equipment and/or material for nuclear, chemical, and biological
warfare, as well as landmines, are not eligible for RBC financing
support or services under any circumstances.
RBC companies are also required to apply appropriate scrutiny
and monitoring measures to high-risk clients whose business
activities are known to be susceptible to criminal activity
or have been designated as high risk for money laundering.
RBC will not provide services to, and knowingly open an account
for, a money-service business such as internet/on-line gambling
sites, or entities owned/controlled, directly or indirectly,
by a business that owns or operates such a site. Learn more
about our anti-corruption
policies.
"Green" services for the
renewable energy sector
In London (U.K.), RBC Capital Markets' Energy & Utilities
group provides experienced and successful services to the
renewable energy sector. The 20-member team offers investment
banking, financing and advisory services for businesses and
renewable power projects in Europe, and provides support to
our international activities within the renewable energy sector
for projects such as wind farm, small hydro and biomass initiatives.
In February 2004, RBC Capital Markets was the key advisor
in closing a deal for a 400 megawatt wind farm portfolio in
the U.K., deemed the renewable energy deal of the year by
Project Finance International.
We finance more than 25 wind farms in Canada, U.S., U.K.
and Italy and run a US$50 million Alternative Energy Investment
fund overseen by RBC Capital Partners. RBC Technology Ventures
is a lead investor in the GEF Clean Technology Fund, a private
equity investment fund that identifies and finances companies
that create technologies that enable traditional industrial
companies to reduce energy consumption, their material waste,
discharge of pollutants, safety or public health hazards,
and other environmental issues.
Our strategy in renewable energy also includes conducting
investment research for the capital markets in this area.
For example, RBC has identified four key investment strategies
for investing in the solar power industry and has produced
the report, "Here Comes the Sun" to advise our clients
and internal business partners.
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