RBC Closes Customer Accounts as Panama Papers Review Concludes

  • Royal Bank adds new tax compliance measures after examination
  • Accounts of about 40 clients shut due to bank’s risk-tolerance

A Royal Bank of Canada branch stands in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Photographer: Ben Nelms/Bloomberg
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Royal Bank of Canada closed accounts of about 40 clients and bolstered tax compliance following a review of offshore accounts tied to last year’s leak of records from a Panama law firm.

“The review is completed,” J-F Courville, chief operating officer of Royal Bank’s wealth-management unit, said in an interview. “We found out we have a business with good controls, but opportunities to improve consistency through constant training to make sure we have consistent interpretation and application of strict policies and procedures.”