The Royal Bank of Canada offices in Toronto are seen on Thursday March 1, 2011.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Royal Bank of Canada made a point of highlighting a big number in its fourth-quarter results - 77 per cent - to point out to investors that the bank is no longer as heavily dependent on capital markets for profit.
That's the amount of its profit that came from businesses that are based on dealing with retail customers, not investment banking and securities trading. It's profit that comes from wealth management, insurance and most of all retail banking.
RBC's capital markets business generated only 22 per cent of profit last year at RBC. Two years ago, that number was more like 27 per cent.
RBC has long suffered from a perception in some investors' eyes that it is too heavily weighted to capital markets, where earnings can be more volatile. That has at time caused RBC's price-earnings multiple to be depressed compared to rivals that investors feel are less tied to capital markets.
The bank hasn't slowed down growth in capital markets, but it has focused on finding other areas to grow to ensure that the expansion in capital markets businesses doesn't start to further tilt the earnings breakdown.
The 77 per cent number, highlighted in chief executive officer Gordon Nixon's Message from the CEO, shows that for now, it's working.