THE Royal Bank of Canada’s purchase of the Canadian unit of HSBC Holdings received the blessing of the country’s antitrust body, which said the deal does not violate competition law. 

The acquisition will not result in a “substantial lessening or prevention of competition”, Canada’s Competition Bureau said in a statement on Friday (Sep 1).

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has the final say on the deal. HSBC has said it expects the transaction to be completed in early 2024. 

The competition watchdog found that there’s “rivalry between HSBC Canada and RBC across many financial services markets, but that HSBC Canada’s competitive impact was limited when compared to other financial institutions”, according to the report it sent to Freeland.  

Royal Bank struck the deal to buy HSBC Canada, the country’s seventh-largest bank, for 13.5 billion Canadian dollars (S$13.4 billion) last November.

It is RBC’s largest acquisition ever and represents a rare chance to quickly grab market share in a Canadian banking landscape dominated by six large firms. BLOOMBERG

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