RBC bets on growth in Europe as businesses diversify trade

Derek Neldner, Royal Bank of Canada’s RY-T head of capital markets, travelled to London in April, where the lender’s senior bankers from across the globe convened to strategize on its plan to go head to head with the world’s biggest investment banks.

As trade uncertainty and geopolitical volatility whipsaw markets, the capital-markets unit of Canada’s largest lender is boosting hiring, expanding its products and services and pushing into sectors in Britain and Europe where it believes it can grow its business.

It’s part of the bank’s bid to break out from its position as the 13th-largest capital-markets business globally and crack the top ten list, which is dominated by U.S. banks.

“When we look at the size of the [European] market, it’s a very big growth opportunity for us. It’s very relevant to our North American clients, both in terms of cross-border opportunities as well as financing,” Mr. Neldner said in an interview.

RBC plans to spend up to $1-billion to boost investments in Canadian companies, CEO says

“When you just look at what’s going on in the world in terms of trade, the opportunity in Europe continues to improve, and the opportunity for a Canadian bank in Europe has continued to get better.”

The region is making up a bigger portion of RBC’s capital-markets revenue. In 2025, Britain and Europe accounted for 18 per cent of the unit’s total revenue, climbing 33 per cent to $2.5-billion from the year prior – outpacing growth in Canada, the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific.

Mr. Neldner said Britain and Europe are among RBC’s biggest growth opportunities in capital markets, and he expects the business in the region to contribute as much as 20 per cent of the unit’s revenue in the coming years.

European investment banks have been losing market share to U.S. lenders, buoyed by easing regulatory requirements that allow them to deploy more capital to clients.

RBC is eager to be part of the mix. The lender has seen growing interest from Canadian companies exploring opportunities in Europe, as well as inbound interest from foreign businesses.

Much of RBC’s business in Britain and Europe involves working with Canadian companies on deals oversees, pulling from its expertise in both regions. The bank was the sole financial adviser on Brookfield Wealth Solutions’ takeover of Britain-based Just Group PLC for £2.4-billion as part of its expansion into the country’s pension risk market.

RBC also advised British mining giant Anglo American PLC on its merger with Vancouver’s Teck Resources Ltd.

Mr. Neldner said many Canadian companies are also diversifying their funding sources through cross-border financing. The bank’s debt capital markets team is spending more time with clients considering the sterling, euro, Australian dollar and U.S. dollar bond markets.

RBC, CIBC, TD Bank, BMO, National Bank and Scotiabank: A breakdown of the big banks’ second-quarter earnings

As global trade routes shift, RBC expects cross-border transactions to boom. Mr. Neldner said trade dynamics have been changing for more than a year now, but companies are being thoughtful when approaching their long-term strategies and navigating volatile geopolitical swings.

“Even if they make a strategic decision that they want to expand in another geography, it takes time to find the right opportunity and execute on that,” Mr. Neldner said. “We’re still fairly early in the journey of seeing an increase in what we expect to be a higher level of cross-border activity.”

As the bank plots its expansion in the region, RBC is also increasingly taking on deals between companies that are both based in either Britain or Europe.

Earlier this year, RBC acted as an adviser to an institutional investor consortium, including Europe’s largest pension fund, Dutch asset manager APG, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte and Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages Norway’s and the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. The consortium acquired a 46-per-cent stake in German electricity transmission system operator TenneT GmbH & Co. for up to €9.5-billion.

RBC also advised German-based pension fund Ärzteversorgung Westfalen-Lippe and two German institutional investors on the sale of their combined indirect stake in Amprion GmbH, one of the country’s utility companies. The deal was valued at €3.6-billion.

“Those are interesting because we do lots of cross-border business, but both of those were effectively in-country domestic German transactions,” Mr. Neldner said.

“When you think about transactions of that scale – when you get into €3- and €9-billion transactions – these were very large, very competitive pieces of business that all banks would like to be around.”

Last fall, RBC moved its Frankfurt and Paris teams – its two largest in Europe – into bigger offices to accommodate its growing work force and upgrade its premises as it attracts new European clients and bigger deals.

RBC has been hiring across Britain and Europe, pulling senior bankers from capital markets heavyweight banks, including U.S.-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc., Germany-based Deutsche Bank AG, and London’s Barclays Plc.

The lender has grown its capital-markets team in the region by 16 per cent in the past five years. Its 1,300 employees are largely based in Britain, but also span across Germany, France, Switzerland, Spain and the Netherlands, which also serves the other Benelux countries of Belgium and Luxembourg.

RBC chief executive turns to AI to help inform his daily agenda

In the past year, RBC has hired more than 20 managing directors in its European business. Mr. Neldner said the bank will continue hiring, in particular in Germany and Paris, and the “additions are going to be measured in the hundreds.”

Looking ahead, he said the bank would consider expanding its capital-markets business in Italy, where many of its global peers have offices.

The lender is looking at filling gaps in its coverage by sector and country.

RBC is building its investment-banking teams that specialize in high-demand sectors, including industrials, health care, financial institutions and technology.

In global markets, the bank is expanding its equity derivatives and financing businesses. It’s also enhancing its commodities products and services to push further into the growing energy and metals markets. RBC hired Ron Ruffini from Citigroup’s London office as its head of commodities risk solutions in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

At its investor day in 2025, the bank earmarked its corporate-banking unit to grow in the mid-single-digit range, but Mr. Neldner said the business has been outpacing that target as companies seek out more capital.

RBC has also been investing in its U.S. cash-management business, which it launched in 2024. It recently brought British and European companies onto its RBC Clear platform, which provides its large corporate clients with payments and receivable management, as well as other treasury and liquidity services.

But the bank still considers its U.S. capital-markets business its biggest growth opportunity. RBC was the only Canadian bank on the list of 23 bookrunners involved in the SpaceX IPO in June. It was also a joint bookrunner on Alphabet Inc.’s US$84.75-billion equity capital raise.

And the Canadian business is still critical to the unit’s growth strategy, especially as interest in the bank’s domestic market rises from foreign companies and investors amid Ottawa’s ambitions to bolster economic growth.

“There’s been a very meaningful shift in the strategic direction of the country led by the federal government, and when you look at the focus on energy, defence, critical minerals, infrastructure, that strategy is resonating,” Mr. Neldner said.

“Canada globally is being seen as a much-more attractive place for investment than it has been in the last decade.”