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The Royal Bank of Canada (TSX:RY) will be eliminating its international advisory groups in Toronto and Montreal, while holding on to its Vancouver-based part of the business. The move is part of a wider restructuring of its international wealth management operations.

RBC’s international advisory group serves high net worth foreign clients or Canadian clients who live abroad. Other Canadian banks are following similar strategies.

“RBC Wealth Management will be exiting its international private banking group and international advisory group in Toronto and Montreal,” confirmed Claire Holland, a spokesperson for the bank, in an e-mail. “The Vancouver groups, who focus on Asia-based clients, will continue to operate within RBC Wealth Management Canada.”

RBC would not disclose how many advisors were affected by the elimination of the Toronto and Montreal centres of the international advisory group. However, in an interview with Investment Executive in February, an executive with RBC Dominion Securities indicated that its international advisory group consisted of 55 advisors. The average book of business on the platform was between $200 million and $250 million.

“A number of strategic options are being considered for the impacted groups in Toronto and Montreal,” Holland wrote.

The Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX:BNS) also has an international advisory platform, separate from its ScotiaMcLeod Inc. brokerage. The bank remains committed to its international wealth management business, noted Cathy Welling, managing director and head of international wealth and pensions, in a statement.

On Friday, RBC said that it would be exiting its wealth management business in the Caribbean, as well as certain other international private banking groups in Canada and the U.S. It also would be undergoing a strategic review of its RBC Suisse private banking and wealth management business in Switzerland. The bank also indicated that it would continue to focus on building its wealth management business serving high net worth clients in a few key areas, including Canada, the U.S., the British Isles and Asia.

Canadian banks with businesses in the Caribbean have struggled to find growth. In January, RBC sold its Jamaican retail banking business to Sagicor Group Jamaica Ltd. In May, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce booked a goodwill impairment charge and loan losses on its Caribbean operations. In early November, Scotiabank announced it would be shutting 120 of its foreign branches, mostly in the Caribbean and Mexico, as part of a larger restructuring across the bank.

The moves by Canadian banks to international shed business units that are not contributing to overall growth is consistent with similar decisions by global banks to consolidate and focus on key areas of business, says a financial services analyst.

“[There’s a] general trend [globally] towards banks trying to slim down their operations from a pure efficiency standpoint,” says Gabriel Dechaine, a financial services analyst with Canaccord Genuity Corp. in Toronto. “It doesn’t necessarily have to do with dollars and cents. It has to do with making the organization easier to manage by having fewer of these far-flung businesses that don’t move the bottom line too much.”