RBC Direct Investing, the brokerage division of the Royal Bank of Canada, has started providing real-time streaming quotes on Canadian and U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to all clients at no charge, effective immediately.
John Bai, President & CEO, RBC Direct Investing, commented:
“We’ve moved clients even closer to the trading floor, all from the convenience of their online account. We’ve also kept it simple. Our real-time quotes are automatically integrated into the service we provide for all our clients. There are no minimum balance or trading activity requirements and there are no exchange agreements to sign. Adding real-time streaming provides all clients with a powerful tool for making investment decisions. In addition, we offer research and commentary from trusted sources, complementing our dynamic trading dashboard and industry-recognized planning and tracking resources. We’re ensuring today’s self-directed investors have everything they want, right at their fingertips.”
The new service provides investors with automatic access to bid/ask quotes and see the current price before they buy or sell, from ’tick by tick’ to spot opportunities, without hitting the refresh button.
RBC Direct Invest offers brokerage services for $9.95 flat for online or mobile trades in stocks and ETFs. The pricing lowers to $6.95 flat per trade for 150+ trades per quarter. Options trading has an extra cost of $1.25 per contract traded. This pricing only applies to trades placed through an available Automated Service (as such term is defined in RBC Direct Investing’s Operation of Account Agreement), including the online investing site and mobile application.
In October, the CFTC ordered RBC Capital Markets, a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Canada, to Pay $5 Million for supervisory failures resulting in illegal trades and other violations. The order found that RBCCM had actual notice of the December 2014 injunction against RBC prohibiting wash trading, yet the Wash EFPs continued at RBCCM. The order also found that RBC delegated execution and surveillance of the bank’s futures transactions on exchanges in the United States to RBCCM, but that they failed to adequately implement a reasonable supervisory system overseeing its futures transactions, and failed to detect at least 385 Wash EFPs. These hundreds of unlawful trades and other violations took place over the period of at least late 2011 through May 2017.
The order required RBCCM to cease and desist from future violations, pay a $5 million civil monetary penalty, and for a period of three years to expeditiously and completely cooperate with the Commission and any other governmental agency in all future investigations.
