Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE, TSX: RY) is Canada's largest bank in terms of total assets.^[1] With almost $35.4 billion Canadian Dollars in 2009 revenue, RBC ranks 55th on Forbes Global 2000 list, which ranks companies' sizes on a composite of sales, profits, assets, and market value.^[2] Revenue from Canada accounts for 70% of RBC's revenue, but the Canadian bank also has a large presence in the Southeast U.S. and the Caribbean.^[3]

While RBC tops Canada's Big Five, five banks that dominate the Canadian banking system and control over 90% of all Canadian banking assets.^[4], its tier 1 risk-based capital ratio is the thinnest among its Canadian peers at 13.4% as of 2010.^[5][6] Tier 1 is a measure of equity and retained earnings to risk-adjusted capital and generally is used to indicate a bank's financial health.

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