By James Langton

(February 23 – 16:50 ET) – On a conference call with analysts this afternoon, the Royal Bank’s basked in generally positive comments about RBC’s succession plan. RBC Dominion Securities head, Gord Nixon, is ascending to the helm of the bank in August, after John Cleghorn retires.

Another persistent theme during the call was the bank’s commitment to full-service brokerage. RBC has announced that “cost containment” initiatives are underway at its domestic discount brokerage, Action Direct. It is also actively shopping its U.S.-based online discounter, Bull & Bear Securities.

Cleghorn noted that Bull & Bear was purchased when RBC was contemplating its merger with Bank of Montreal. Bull & Bear would have been an addition to BMO’s Harris Bank subsidiary. Since that deal was quashed, RBC says it has reordered its priorities and decided to devote resources to full-service. Hence the deal for Dain Rauscher late last year.

The price on the Dain deal has slipped from its initially expected $1.5 billion to $1.2 billion, and it was noted that it expects the deal to be earnings neutral this year and accretive next year. Dain’s Irv Weiser said that retention of both brokers and executives has not been much of a problem so far, citing market weakness as one reason brokerage recruiting has slowed.

RBC executives had to concede that Wealth Management’s revenues have slipped slightly from the fourth quarter, but they denied any distraction related to Dain. Any fall-off is being blamed on weak markets, they argued.

Nixon, incoming CEO of the bank and current CEO of RBC Dominion Securities, noted that market weakness has hit the equity underwriting and trading businesses, too. However, he noted a rejuvenation in the fixed-income business as a result. Nixon also said that they have not yet seen any drop in the lucrative M&A advisory business.

Earlier in the day, Cleghorn faced a series of questions from shareholders at RBC’s annual meeting. He was taken to task for alleged ethics weakness in both its DS and RT Capital subsidiaries.

Still another shareholder and former employee went on to push for more female representation on the bank’s board, and representation from someone under 40 years of age. Cleghorn plegded to “keep it in mind”.