カナダの銀行の米国への進出が拡大

Although there are some questions about the exact wording of Paul Revere’s famous announcement from 1775, “the British are coming” will be an indelible phrase from American history. Fast forward almost 250 years to 2024, and there’s an unmistakable pattern evolving in the United States banking landscape. The Canadians are coming!

The land border between the United States and Canada is over 5,500 miles (8,900 km) long – the longest border in the world. The two countries share many cultural elements but have quite different banking environments. Canadian banking is dominated by a few very large banks (not unlike the historical banking environment in the United Kingdom), plus an expansive credit union ecosystem. The US has evolved into a pyramid structure with some of the largest global banks at the top, broadening through super-regional and regional banks, to several thousand community banks and credit unions. (Of course, the US also has a 9x larger population to bank).

The presence of Canadian banks in the US is not new, but there has been a stronger push south since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

TD Bank
With arguably the most established presence in the United States, TD Bank has held a significant banking presence in the US for several decades, established through acquisitions in wealth management (TD Waterhouse and TD Ameritrade), and banking (Banknorth and Commerce Bancorp). TD Bank now faces a more competitive US regional market and must also respond to the acquisitions and technology investments other Canadian banks are now making in the US. To their credit, TD Invent is an enterprise approach to innovation at scale.

Bank of Montreal (BMO)
BMO acquired Chicago-based Harris Bank in 1984 to offer retail and commercial banking services across the Midwest region. Following the sale of Bank of the West by French owners, BNPP, BMO completed the acquisition of Bank of the West in 2023 to expand retail and commercial banking operations westward. The technical integration of these two banks was highlighted with a Celent Model Bank 2024 Award to BMO for integration excellence.

CIBC
Also, with an eye on the Chicago area, CIBC completed the acquisition of The Private Bank in June 2017. The company focuses on commercial, corporate, and wealth management services. CIBC now also provides innovation banking services to US founders and startup companies—a market where Silicon Valley Bank traditionally dominates. This is a segment with high expectations in digital banking experiences and is highlighted in Silicon Valley Bank: Digital Leading the Way Back with SVB Go.

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)
Canada’s largest bank completed the acquisition of City National in 2015 for $5.4 Bn, catering to the needs of US commercial clients. In September 2023, RBC announced a further capital injection to Los Angeles-based City National to boost liquidity. To meet the needs of larger clients, and especially the US banking needs of Canadian multinationals, RBC Capital Markets launched a brand new corporate cash management service in the US in April 2024 - RBC Clear. The platform is built on an entirely new cloud-based technology stack and is featured in Build for Today, but Design for Tomorrow: Modern Architecture for Corporate Banking.

Scotiabank
Scotiabank’s international presence has been primarily focused on Latin America and the Caribbean. An expansion into the United States is a logical step. In August 2024, Scotiabank announced a 15% stake in Cleveland-based Key Corp. Although a smaller move than their Canadian peers, this should be considered a strategic foothold for retail and commercial banking expansion.

Although there may only be one (long) border between the US and Canada, Canadian banks will face competition on three fronts.

1. The major US global cash management banks, each of which has modern banking technology platforms and offers a wide range of products and services for multinational large corporate and commercial clients.
2. The US regional and super-regional banks, such as Citizens, Fifth Third and Truist, are modernizing their commercial banking cash management solutions to increase competitiveness with J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo.
3. Each other! With all the major Canadian banks offering corporate and/or commercial banking services, Canadian companies now have greater choice among “home” providers for US banking services.

As Celent’s Dimensions Survey research shows, the correct alignment of product offering is clearly table-stakes, but digital banking experiences—online, mobile, and connectivity-based—remain a differentiator. Several European and Japanese banks are also seeking to push further into the US market. In all cases, banking experiences (and the selection of technology platforms to enable them) matter more than ever before.