- Business
- Laurentian Bank of Canada (LB.TO) operates as a Schedule 1 commercial bank focused on personal banking, commercial lending, and specialized financial services primarily in Quebec with operations across Canada including Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia; headquartered in Montreal since its founding in 1846 as the Montreal City and District Savings Bank, it provides retail deposit accounts, mortgages, personal loans, credit cards including a Visa line launched with Brim Financial in 2023, and small-to-medium enterprise banking solutions; through subsidiaries such as Laurentian Bank Securities, it offers fixed income trading as a primary dealer with the Bank of Canada, institutional services including trade execution and custody, specialized foreign exchange hedging, ActionGIC structured products with 100% capital protection linked to equities, and investment accounts; B2B Bank delivers alternative mortgages and business loans to brokers and advisors; Northpoint Commercial Finance, formed in 2024 by merging LBC Capital and Northpoint following the 2017 acquisition of Northpoint and earlier equipment financing expansions, leads in equipment and inventory financing across Canada and the U.S. with a $5.5 billion portfolio; personal banking advisory services feature multidisciplinary teams of planners and private bankers in dedicated centers. In December 2025, Laurentian Bank announces a transformative strategic shift to a specialty commercial bank, agreeing to a C$1.9 billion acquisition by Fairstone Bank of Canada for its commercial operations including real estate lending and inventory financing while divesting its retail and SME portfolios plus a C$0.9 billion syndicated loan portfolio to National Bank of Canada, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals, as part of its 2024 Strategic Plan emphasizing commercial specializations and digital simplification; earlier, in August 2024, iA Financial Group completes acquisition of Laurentian Bank Securities' retail full-service investment broker assets.