Scotiabank

Strategic direction comes from CEO Scott Thomson, who took over in February 2023. Global Banking and Markets — the primary institutional engine — is led by a group head reporting to Thomson, while Global Wealth Management and International Banking each have separate C-suite leadership. The bank's board-level risk committee and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) in Canada constrain the institutional book's risk appetite more tightly than a pure-play fund manager.

Origination runs primarily through its commercial and corporate banking teams across Canada, the US, and the Pacific Alliance countries — Mexico, Peru, Chile, and Colombia. The bank's full-service retail and commercial subsidiaries in those four Latin American markets give it on-the-ground relationships with project sponsors, developers, and mid-market companies that external funds cannot easily replicate. In Canada and the US, Global Banking and Markets originates larger-ticket infrastructure and leveraged-lending opportunities, often holding senior positions on its own balance sheet alongside syndicate partners.

Scotiabank concentrates institutional capital across a US-Mexico-Cananda corridor, with additional exposure in Peru, Chile, and Colombia. Canada remains the largest single market for its balance-sheet lending and wealth management. In February 2024, the bank signaled a pullback from less profitable Latin American jurisdictions, refocusing on the Pacific Alliance core and North America. Its Caribbean operations — particularly in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic — complete the geographic picture for institutional and private-wealth flows.

As a Canadian Systemically Important Bank, Scotiabank operates under OSFI capital and liquidity requirements that are generally more conservative than US or European equivalents. This means larger capital buffers, stricter stress-testing, and limits on illiquid holdings — producing a lower-risk counterparty but also a slower-moving institutional platform. For a private fund weighing Scotiabank as a co-investor or credit partner, the regulatory overlay means the bank is unlikely to move at private-fund speed but brings a fortified balance sheet and zero redemption risk not found in a GP structure.