Donald Ivan McLeod		William Ewart Young

The quartet first met at (then) A.E. Ames & Co. Ltd in Toronto, and were engaged either directly or indirectly in the sales end of the brokerage industry. With the exception of Ratcliffe, all had been with Ames since approximately 1912. Discussion to form an enterprise initially transpired between McLeod, Young and Weir, who later invited Ratcliffe to join in the formation of the firm. On 1 February 1921, the new partners resigned from A.E. Ames & Co. Ltd., and with a working capital of $23,000 formed a company that would be in business to deal with high-grade bonds.

The firm's first purchase by competitive tender was $350,000 City of Regina 6 percent, 30 year Public School Bonds, which they sold entirely to institutions. They continued to buy high-grade bonds by competitive tender, and the business started to grow as the firm established operations in New York, Montreal, London Ontario, Hamilton and Winnipeg.

John Henry (Harry) Ratcliffe		Col. James Gordon Weir, 1930

As the Canadian economy developed and the volume of general commercial business expanded, McLeod decided in the late 1920s to branch out into the broader field of corporate financing. Their first corporate issue turned out to be a first mortgage bond issue for the Metropolitan Building which was billed as the tallest building in the British Empire at 44 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario. The company remained relatively unscathed by the 1929 stock market crash as it was dedicated entirely to high-grade bonds and all of their money was tied to the firm. By 1929 the firm's capital had grown to more than $1,300,000.

Within 2 years, however, the situation changed. At that time, the British market was a large market for Canadian securities. When Great Britain decided to abandon the gold standard on September 30, 1931, the effects were devastating. Overnight, McLeod, Young, Weir and Co. lost approximately $600,000 on bond holdings in their inventory. As a result, the company merged with two other young firms: Bell, Gouinlock & Co.; and Fry, and Mills, Spence & Co. Ltd., to form a group to bid for government and municipal bonds against the other larger firms like Wood Gundy & Co. and A.E. Ames & Co.. The results were positive as McLeod, Young, Weir and Co. was included in the group of investment dealers appointed by the Bank of Canada to bid on and distribute Government of Canada Treasury Bills. This proved to be a large boost to the business resulting in offices opening across Canada and around the world. Offices were opened in London, England in 1968, Tokyo in 1985, Paris in 1989 and Hong Kong in 1989. During this period, the company also changed its name for a third time to McLeod, Young, Weir Co. & Ltd.

By the 1970s, McLeod, Young, Weir Co. & Ltd. diversified to offer a full range of investment services and in 1979 the company became the first Canadian Investment dealer to follow the lead of the American firms by installing an Automated Data Processing system (ADP). This new system kept track of trade activity and enabled the firm to keep track of client accounts in a quicker and more efficient manner.

In 1982, Shearson Lehman acquired 10% of McLeod, Young, Weir Co. & Ltd. in return for access to their U.S. Research facilities and U.S. Commodities Trading. The remainder of the firm was owned by the employees themselves. In June 1987, Shearson Lehman acquired a total of 30 % interest in the company and Claridge Investments purchased 19.9 % of the company shares with the remaining 50.1 % staying in the hands of the employees. This move increased the company's equity capital from $78 to $210 million.

On 29 March 1988, Scotiabank acquired McLeod, Young, Weir Co. & Ltd. and the company was newly named ScotiaMcLeod Inc. Today, ScotiaMcLeod Inc. is a sub-division of Scotia Capital Incorporated.

ScotiaMcLeod is the investment arm of Scotiabank, and a division of Scotia Capital Inc. Scotiabank is one of Canada's largest financial organizations with over $280 billion in assets. Scotia Capital is a proven corporate and investment banking leader, and contributes to making the Scotiabank Group one of North America's premier financial institutions and Canada's most international bank.

We are a leading financial services provider, with over 800 advisors serving clients in more than 70 offices across the country. Working within the Scotiabank Group of Companies, our advisors can coordinate a team of experts to integrate protection, trust, legal, estate planning, borrowing and banking services within a total financial solution to our clients.

Scotiabank Group

The Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank) opened for business in 1832 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to facilitate the thriving trans-Atlantic trade between Britain, North America and the West Indies. Agents were quickly assigned to New York, Boston and London, providing a framework for the Bank’s operations and an early indication of its global aspirations. Scotiabank paid its first dividend to shareholders a year later - the first in an unbroken history of dividend payments that continues to this day.

Beginning in the 1880s, Scotiabank moved westward across Canada. By the early 1900s, a coast-to-coast branch network had been established, and its headquarters moved to Toronto. This expansion was accelerated by amalgamations with the Union Bank of Prince Edward Island (1882), Bank of New Brunswick (1913), Metropolitan Bank (1914) and Bank of Ottawa (1919).

The post-Second World War economic boom ushered in new growth for Scotiabank. Among the many innovations pioneered by Scotiabank during this period: Scotia Plan Loans, one of Canada’s first consumer lending products; the public trading of gold; and the appointment of the first Canadian women as branch managers.

When the financial services sector deregulated in the late 1980s and 1990s, the Bank further diversified its Canadian operations through major acquisitions, including investment dealer McLeod Young Weir (1987), and trust companies Montreal Trust (1994) and National Trust (1997).

Scotiabank’s first office outside of Canada opened in the grain trade capital of Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A., in 1885, later moving to Chicago in 1892. In 1889, the Bank opened a branch in Kingston, Jamaica, to facilitate the trading of sugar, rum and fish. It was the first branch of a Canadian bank to open outside the United States or United Kingdom and formed the base of what would become a thriving network spanning some 25 countries throughout the Caribbean and Central America - making Scotiabank the largest bank in this region.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Scotiabank began extending its network into Asia, and by the 1990s, had also expanded its presence in Central and South America, making it one of the world’s most truly international banks.

In 2006, the Scotiabank Group's presence in Latin America is evident through majority-controlled Grupo Financiero Scotiabank in Mexico, Scotiabank El Salvador, Scotiabank de Costa Rica, Scotiabank Sud Americano in Chile and Scotiabank Peru, as well as affiliate Banco del Caribe in Venezuela.