VersaBank

VersaBank
Public
Traded as TSX: VB
Industry Bank
Founded 1980
Headquarters London, Ontario, Canada
Key people
 David Taylor, President & CEO
Products Financial services
Website

VersaBank, formerly Pacific & Western Bank of Canada, is a Canadian chartered bank that was founded in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 1980 as a trust company. It later moved its head offices to London, Ontario,[1] and on August 1, 2002, it was granted a Schedule I Canadian chartered bank licence by the Canadian federal government, the first in approximately 18 years. The bank is publicly traded as VB on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

VersaBank is a branchless financial institution, choosing to invest instead in a technology based platform. Entrepreneur and founder of the bank, David Taylor, designed the electronic branchless platform. Beginning in 1993, the existing Pacific & Western Bank, a small trust company with six branches and a need for capital investment, reconfigured itself into a branchless bank based on online banking. By 2013 the bank became Canada's tenth largest publicly traded bank when it began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.[2] In 2017 the bank completed a revision of its ownership structure that included a merger with its largest stockholder, PWC Capital, reported to be "the first merger between a Schedule 1 bank and a holding company operating under the Canadian Business Corporations Act".[3][4]

The bank's deposits have been raised digitally by way of a comprehensive broker network situated throughout Canada.[5] In 2016, there were over 120 deposit broker firms raising its deposits, including many of the in-house brokerage firms of the big six Canadian banks. Its lending portfolio consists of commercial and corporate lending, real estate and development financing, and an innovative, state-of-the-art bulk purchase program. The bank's target market is well-established Canadian corporate entities.

In May 2016, the bank changed its name to VersaBank because Versa is the prefix for versatile and because Pacific & Western had little direct relevance given the bank’s national and virtual focus.[6]

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.