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A supporter of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez holds a poster with a photograph of Chavez and the words "The peoples of the world, united through Venezuela, thank you for your solidarity. Your victory will be ours" while standing on a square in San Salvador, El Salvador, March 5, 2013.Ulises Rodriguez/Reuters

The death of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and the closely watched transition of power that is to follow are reminders that Bank of Nova Scotia's status as Canada's most international bank also means it operates in countries where things can get interesting fast. So what's at stake for the bank in Venezuela?

Not very much. If there's one foreign market where Scotia operates where the bank can afford turmoil, it's Venezuela.

The bank has a representative office and owns a small stake in a Venezuelan bank, Banco del Caribe, which has 113 branches. Scotiabank owns 27 per cent of Banco del Caribe, a stake it purchased in 1997. Some sources list Banco del Caribe as the seventh-largest bank in Venezuela.

Scotiabank's latest quarterly results, out Tuesday, list $188-million in exposure to Venezuela. That's the smallest of all the Latin American and Asian markets where Scotiabank operates. By comparison, exposure to Mexico was $5.6-billion, Chile was $6.4-billion and China was $6.9-billion.

Set against the bank's $764-billion in assets, Venezuela is insignificant.

Scotiabank shareholders certainly aren't concerned. The stock was on the rise in early trading on Wednesday.

(Boyd Erman is a Globe and Mail Reporter & Streetwise Columnist.)

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Tickers mentioned in this story

Study and track financial data on any traded entity: click to open the full quote page. Data updated as of 18/03/24 4:00pm EDT.

SymbolName% changeLast
BNS-N
Bank of Nova Scotia
-0.22%49.69
BNS-T
Bank of Nova Scotia
-0.24%67.28

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