RBC Wealth Management to acquire the Latin American, Caribbean and African international private banking business of Coutts

RBC Wealth Management expands in emerging markets

TORONTO, March 20, 2012 /CNW/ - Royal Bank of Canada (RY on TSX and NYSE) today announced its global wealth division RBC Wealth Management will acquire the Latin American, Caribbean and African private banking business of Coutts, the wealth division of Royal Bank of Scotland Group. The business has client assets in excess of US$2 billion.

"This business represents an excellent opportunity to increase our market share with high net worth and ultra high net worth clients in key high growth markets while delivering very attractive returns," said George Lewis, group head, RBC Wealth Management. "As the sixth-largest wealth manager in the world, we can offer these clients the very high level of personal service and global capabilities that they expect from a top tier international firm."

The business to be acquired includes clients who reside in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa, as well as key private banking staff based primarily in Geneva, Switzerland and also includes a team in the Cayman Islands.

"Our Geneva-based business has built a reputation for serving the often complex needs of emerging market clients," said Karen Simpson, general manager and head of private banking, Royal Bank of Canada (Suisse) SA. "This acquisition will enable us to increase our client base significantly in these three important target regions."

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in the latter part of Q2 2012.

About RBC Wealth Management
RBC Wealth Management is one of the world's top 10 largest wealth managers. RBC Wealth Management directly serves affluent, high-net-worth and ultra high net worth clients in Canada, the United States, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia with a full suite of banking, investment, trust and other wealth management solutions. The business also provides asset management products and services directly and through RBC and third-party distributors to institutional and individual clients, through its RBC Global Asset Management business (which includes BlueBay Asset Management). RBC Wealth Management has more than C$534 billion of assets under administration, more than C$313 billion of assets under management and approximately 4,300 financial consultants, advisors, private bankers and trust officers.

Caution regarding forward-looking statements

Certain statements contained in this press release may be deemed to be forward-looking statements under certain securities laws, including the "safe harbor" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and any applicable Canadian securities legislation. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the acquisition of Coutts by Royal Bank of Canada and related assets. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as "believe", "expect", "foresee", "forecast", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "goal", "plan" and "project" and similar expressions of future or conditional verbs such as "will", "may", "should", "could", or "would".

By their very nature, forward-looking statements require us to make assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, which give rise to the possibility that our predictions, forecasts, projections, expectations or conclusions and other forward-looking information, including statements about the acquisition of Coutts by Royal Bank of Canada will not be achieved. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these statements as a number of important factors could cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to the possibility that the proposed transaction does not close when expected or at all because required regulatory or other approvals are not received or other conditions to the closing are not satisfied on a timely basis or at all, that Royal Bank of Canada, Coutts or the Royal Bank of Scotland may be required to modify the terms and conditions of the proposed transaction to achieve regulatory approval, or that the anticipated benefits of the transaction are not realized as a result of such things as the strength of the economy and competitive factors in the areas where Coutts does business; the impact of changes in the laws and regulations regulating financial services and enforcement thereof (including banking, insurance and securities); judicial or regulatory judgments and legal proceedings; the ability of Coutts and Royal Bank of Scotland to complete the transaction successfully; reputational risks, and other factors that may affect future results of Royal Bank of Canada, Coutts and the Royal Bank of Scotland. We caution that the foregoing list of important factors is not exhaustive. Additional information about these and other factors can be found in our Q1 2012 Report to Shareholders and 2011 Annual Report to Shareholders.

Except as required by law, Royal Bank of Canada assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements contained in this press release.

Media Enquiries:

U.K. & Europe:
Paul French, London, [phone], [email protected]

Asia & Latin America:
Peter Hoflich, Singapore, 65-6230-1530, [email protected]

U.S. & Canada:
Tanis Robinson, RBC, 416-955-5172, [email protected]

Investor Relations:
Amy Cairncross, RBC, 416 955-7803, [email protected]