John Taft of RBC Wealth Management named chair-elect of SIFMA

NEW YORK and MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Royal Bank of Canada (RY on TSX and NYSE) today announced that John Taft, head of the U.S. division of RBC Wealth Management, has been named chair-elect of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) for 2010. Taft will continue to lead RBC's U.S. wealth management business while assuming this senior role with SIFMA.

For the past year, Taft has been the chair of SIFMA's Private Client Group Steering Committee where he has shown leadership in advocating reform of the U.S. financial regulatory system, playing a key role in lobbying for a new harmonized federal fiduciary standard of care, expertise and advice for US broker-dealers and investment advisors.

Taft recently testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services on behalf of SIFMA about the importance of creating a new, federal fiduciary standard for broker-dealers and investment advisers who provide personalized investment advice to individual investors. The proposed uniform set of federal fiduciary regulatory standards is designed to strengthen safeguards for investors and preserve investor choice.

"RBC is very pleased that John has been appointed as chair-elect of SIFMA," said George Lewis, group head, RBC Wealth Management. "John's appointment reflects the high standard of integrity, responsibility and client stewardship he has brought to both his role at RBC and to his public efforts to ensure individual investors are well served and the regulatory system is fair and efficient."

About RBC Wealth Management

RBC Wealth Management directly serves affluent and high-net-worth clients in Canada, the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia with a full suite of investment, trust and other wealth management solutions. The business also provides asset management products and services directly and through RBC and third-party distributors to institutional and individual clients, through its RBC Global Asset Management division. RBC Wealth Management has more than $490 billion of assets under administration, nearly $240 billion of assets under management and more than 4,500 financial consultants, advisors, private bankers and trust officers. RBC Wealth Management was recognized as the Outstanding Private Bank in North America by Private Banker International in October 2009.

The RBC Wealth Management division of RBC Capital Markets Corporation operates in the United States via more than 200 locations in 43 states. Founded in 1909, RBC Capital Markets Corporation is a member of the New York Stock Exchange, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and other major securities exchanges, as well as the Securities Investor Protection Corp.

SOURCE RBC