RBC Debuts International, Multicurrency Trading Service for Investors

The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) launched an online, multicurrency international trading offering.

RBC Direct Investing provides the service, making it the only bank-owned online brokerage in Canada to offer this capability, according to a Thursday (Dec. 5) press release.

“All our self-directed investors already have the strength of three powerful trading platforms, plus extensive research and commentary at their fingertips,” RBC Direct Investing President and CEO Dimitri Busevs said in the release. “Now we are bringing them online access to trade around the world.”

Clients can now trade online through London, Hong Kong, Frankfurt and Euronext Paris exchanges, the release said. They can hold and trade in British pounds, Hong Kong dollars, euros, Japanese yen, Swiss francs, Singapore dollars, New Zealand dollars and Australian dollars. They can also trade online in United States markets and hold and trade in U.S. dollars.

Clients with RBC pound, Hong Kong dollar or Euro eSavings Account can transfer money in the same currency between their RBC account and their RBC Direct Investing account, according to the release.

“From within their RBC Direct Investing account, that currency is then immediately available for online international trading — no wire transfers, no delays,” the release said.

Once clients hold any of the currencies in their RBC Direct Investing account, they can trade in the same currency with no added foreign exchange fees, per the release.

Meanwhile, Andy Elliott, vice president of strategy at EvonSys, and Costa Hagidimitriou, senior manager at the National Bank of Canada, told PYMNTS in an interview published Monday (Dec. 9) about the way the Swift messaging service can help traditional financial institutions compete directly with the digital upstarts, particularly with cross-border remittances.

While banks might dominate commercial cross-border payments, there’s still room for innovation, the pair said.

“When individuals log into their online banking accounts or mobile apps, the processes that we’re taken through to make a cross-border payment are not very transparent,” Elliott said. “It takes too long. It’s relatively expensive and unnecessarily complex.”