Nowadays, Canada's leading banks are implementing initiatives to attract a diverse client- and employee-base in order to be successful in tomorrow’s economy, where as projected that by 2030, immigration will be the only source of population growth in Canada.
Most banks are adding to their language capabilities, offering several languages at automated banking machines, and staffing banks with multi-lingual tellers. Many have also been changing their loan approval standards for newcomers, given that they do not have credit history in Canada.
The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) for example, considers factors such as a person's employment plans in Canada and their amount of investable assets.
HSBC Bank Canada has been setting up accounts and credit facilities for customers before they land in Canada. "As long as they have the appropriate paperwork and immigrant status, then we can open the account and they can just show up at the branch and finalize everything," explains Tracy Redies, executive vice-president of personal banking services at HSBC Bank.
The Royal Bank of Canada's director of cultural markets stated that reaching out to the immigrant market is one of the bank's key priorities. It has already begun advertising its Canadian services in China, aimed at people who may be considering emigration. Most banks are boosting their advertising budgets to tailor their advertising messages to newcomers.
Canadian banks are also creating positions to focus on newcomers such as the Vice-President of Multicultural Banking at the Bank of Nova Scotia and the Managing Director of Specialty Markets at the Bank of Montreal.
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