Canadian Bank Stocks: RY, TD, BNS, BMO and CM, Two Listings and 27 Years of Dividends

Michael Whitman · Trading since 2017, full-time since 2020 · YouTube creator, 137K subscribers · Published 2026-11-07

Canadian bank stocks are shares in the country’s five largest banks: Royal Bank of Canada (RY), Toronto-Dominion (TD), Bank of Nova Scotia, known as Scotiabank (BNS), Bank of Montreal (BMO) and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, or CIBC (CM). Each trades under the same ticker in Toronto and New York, which is why two prices turn up for one share. National Bank of Canada, often counted as a sixth, has no New York listing (US investors see it over the counter as NTIOF), so it is not in our tables. This page puts the five side by side from their own filings, then counts every dividend they paid since 2000.

The five banks at a glance

Prices are the November 6, 2026 close on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), in Canadian dollars. The banks’ fiscal year ends October 31, so the latest filed quarter is the one to July 31, 2026, reported in late August; fourth-quarter results arrive in early December.

Earnings, book value and CET1 (the common equity tier 1 capital ratio, a measure of how much loss-absorbing equity a bank holds against its risk-weighted assets) are at July 31, 2026, from each bank’s third-quarter 6-K filing on SEC EDGAR. The dividend is the latest quarterly amount that went ex-dividend in Toronto, and the yield is that amount times four over the Toronto price.

In 2026 to November 6, the Toronto lines rose between 21.4% (RBC) and 35.4% (BMO), against 12.85% for the S&P/TSX Composite index.

How it works

Five lenders, one playbook. They take deposits, write mortgages and business loans, and run wealth, brokerage and capital-markets arms alongside the branch network. The mix differs from bank to bank, but a large part of what each earns is the gap between what it charges borrowers and what it pays depositors, plus fees.

One share, two quotes. The NYSE listing is the same common share, not a separate class or a depositary receipt, so arbitrage keeps the US-dollar price close to the Toronto price times the exchange rate. On November 6, every one of the five NYSE closes implied about US$0.708 per Canadian dollar. The bank reports its results, sets its dividend and books its profit in Canadian dollars; the NYSE price only translates them.

Why the currency matters to a US holder. If the Canadian dollar falls, the NYSE price falls with it even when nothing changed in Toronto. Our currency risk page covers the general idea; the measured effect for these five is in the data section below.

The dividend is set in Canadian dollars every quarter. Boards usually announce it with quarterly results and some raise it twice a year. The banks are regulated by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), which in 2020 told them to stop raising it.

How to read the valuation table

Trailing earnings, not one quarter times four. We add the first nine months of fiscal 2026 to the full fiscal 2025 figure from the 40-F annual filing, then subtract the first nine months of 2025. Canadian banks also publish “adjusted” earnings that strip out items such as acquisition costs; this table uses the reported diluted figure, so it can differ from a data vendor’s P/E. The general mechanics are on our P/E ratio page.

Book value is common equity only. Preferred shares and other equity instruments are taken out before dividing by the common shares outstanding. TD, Scotiabank, BMO and CIBC print book value per share in their quarterly reports (BMO’s C$113.06 also matches its balance sheet: C$78,817 million of common equity over 697.1 million shares). For RBC we computed it from the balance sheet, as the worked example shows. Our price-to-book page explains why the ratio matters more for a bank than for most firms.

Higher multiples than the big US lenders. On our US bank stocks page, the two large US lenders traded at 11.8 to 11.9 times earnings on the October 30, 2026 close. The Canadian five sit at 15.6 to 19.7 times. A higher multiple is the price the market is paying for each dollar of profit; it is not, on its own, a sign that a share is too dear or a bargain.

A worked example: RBC from the filing to your account

Every input is in RBC’s third-quarter 2026 release and interim statements (6-K filed August 27, 2026) or its fiscal 2025 40-F.

1. Trailing earnings. Diluted earnings per share were C$12.10 for the nine months to July 31, 2026, C$14.07 for fiscal 2025 and C$10.31 for the nine months to July 31, 2025. C$12.10 + C$14.07 − C$10.31 = C$15.86.
2. P/E. C$284.16 ÷ C$15.86 = 17.9.
3. Book value. Equity attributable to shareholders was C$145,036 million. Taking out C$11,114 million of preferred shares and other equity instruments leaves C$133,922 million of common equity. Divided by 1,384,554,000 common shares, that is C$96.73 a share.
4. Price-to-book. C$284.16 ÷ C$96.73 = 2.94.
5. Yield. RBC’s latest dividend, ex-dividend October 26, 2026, was C$1.76. C$1.76 × 4 = C$7.04 a year, and C$7.04 ÷ C$284.16 = 2.48%.
6. What 100 shares pay a US resident in a taxable account. 100 × C$1.76 = C$176 for the quarter. At the November 6 rate of US$0.7134 per Canadian dollar that is about US$125.56. Canada’s tax at the treaty rate of 15% takes US$18.83, leaving about US$106.73. The real conversion happens at the rate on the payment date, so the US-dollar figure moves every quarter.

The original data

Every dividend since 2000. We pulled each TSX ex-dividend amount for the five banks from Yahoo Finance’s dividend record, adjusted for share splits, from January 2000 to October 2026: 108 payments for RBC and BMO, 107 for TD, Scotiabank and CIBC. A “raise” is an amount higher than the quarter before, a “hold” is the same amount, and a “cut” is a lower one.

From 2000 to 2025 the yearly payout grew 10.6 times at RBC, 8.75 times at TD, 8.31 times at Scotiabank, 6.44 times at BMO and 6.03 times at CIBC: compound rates of 9.90%, 9.06%, 8.84%, 7.73% and 7.45% a year.

The 2008 crisis brought holds, not cuts. BMO paid C$0.70 a share every quarter from October 2007 to July 2012, twenty payments in a row. RBC held at C$0.50 for fifteen and CIBC at C$0.435 for sixteen.

The 2020-21 hold came from the regulator. On March 13, 2020 OSFI set the expectation that dividend increases and share buybacks be halted, and on November 4, 2021 it said institutions may again increase regular dividends. In our data, every one of the five paid the same amount on every ex-dividend date from March 2020 through October 2021; Scotiabank and CIBC raised theirs in December 2021.

The same dividend, two currencies. Over those seven RBC payments the Canadian amount never moved from C$1.08. On the NYSE line, where Yahoo records the dividend in US dollars, the same payments rose from $0.76 to $0.874 as the Canadian dollar strengthened. TD’s went from $0.565 to $0.633 at its highest while its Canadian amount sat at C$0.79. The latest RBC payment, C$1.76 on October 26, 2026, came to $1.257 on the NYSE line.

2026 and ten years, on both listings. Price only, no dividends, to November 6, 2026:

The Canadian dollar fell 2.30% against the US dollar in 2026 to November 6 and 4.69% over the ten years from November 7, 2016, which accounts for most of the gap in each row.

Download the data: every dividend since 2000 and the valuation table. Both files are free to reuse if you credit this page and link to it, as the site license sets out.

Dividend records and US tax

The long records are real, and two are on the banks’ own pages. Scotiabank says it declared its first dividend on July 1, 1833 and has paid continuously since. BMO said in 2011 that it had paid dividends without interruption since 1829. Our data only starts in 2000, so it confirms the last 27 years, not the 19th century.

Canada taxes the dividend before it reaches a US account. The Canada-United States tax treaty caps Canada’s tax on dividends paid to a US resident at 15% of the gross amount for an ordinary shareholder (Article X). Article XXI, as amended, exempts dividends earned by an arrangement that is generally tax-exempt and operated only to provide pension or retirement benefits, which is the clause US retirement accounts such as IRAs generally rely on. Whether a broker actually applies it is a paperwork question to put to the broker. How US tax then treats the dividend is covered on our dividend tax page.

When it fails

“Never cut” is not “always grows.” A frozen dividend loses buying power to inflation, and BMO’s holders waited almost five years for a raise after 2007. If your plan needs a rising income every year, the hold is the risk to price in.

The streak can end. A dividend record is a board decision, not a contract. OSFI’s 2020 expectation shows the regulator can override a bank’s plans, and a deep enough loss could do the same.

Currency can undo a good year. Over the ten years to November 2026 a US holder of Scotiabank on the NYSE gained 70.8% in price against 80.5% for a Canadian holder of the same shares. In a year when the Canadian dollar drops sharply, a US-dollar return can be negative while the Toronto price rises.

The 15% can be lost. Outside a retirement account, the withheld tax is a real cost unless it is claimed as a US foreign tax credit, which has its own holding-period rule, and inside one the exemption depends on the paperwork being in place.

Our ratios age fast. Fourth-quarter results land in early December, and the P/E, book value and yield in the table change with every new filing and every price move.

Questions people ask

Is it better to buy Canadian bank stocks on the TSX or the NYSE?

It is the same share either way. The NYSE line is priced in US dollars, so a US investor avoids converting currency to buy it, but the price still moves with the Canadian dollar. Costs and dividend handling depend on the broker.

Do US investors pay Canadian tax on these dividends?

Usually yes: the treaty caps it at 15% for a US resident. Dividends earned in tax-exempt retirement arrangements can be exempt under Article XXI of the treaty.

Have Canadian banks ever cut their dividend?

Not in our data from January 2000 to October 2026: zero cuts across 537 payments by the five banks. They held their dividends flat after 2008 and during the 2020-21 regulator hold.

Which Canadian bank has paid dividends the longest?

BMO, which says it has paid without interruption since 1829. Scotiabank’s first dividend was declared in 1833.

Related

The US version of this page is bank stocks, with Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Start valuation with price-to-book and the P/E ratio, then check how a payout is covered with the payout ratio. The yield arithmetic is on dividend yield, and the US idea of a long dividend streak is on Dividend Aristocrats. The exchange-rate side lives on currency risk, and the policy rates that drive bank profits on central banks.

This page is educational, not financial advice. Test every idea on your own charts before risking money.