Royal Bank of Canada expects to double the number of wealth management employees in its Dubai office in the near future, and is open to opportunities for acquisitions, a senior executive said, according to media reports.

RBC, as has been recently reported by WealthBriefing, has set its sights on global wealth management as a key driver for growth, targeting organic growth in a number of regions as well as small or medium-sized acquisitions to build its global wealth, private banking and trust business.

"We currently have 15 people in our Dubai office and will expect to double that in the next two to three years," Barend Janssens, head of the bank's wealth management business in emerging markets, reportedly said in Dubai.

The Middle East has been a particular recent focus for RBC’s wealth management business, as reported here. Like its main Canadian competitors, Toronto Dominion, Scotiabank and Bank of Montreal, RBC could be said to be revelling in a reputation for conservatism, although pre-crisis this approach was met with a certain degree of scorn by some. Hindsight has proven Canada’s banks right to have avoided some of the “racier” investments which US and European banks fell foul of during the crisis.

The wealth manager wants to more than double its advisor headcount in emerging markets to at least 220 by 2015 as it seeks to expand its business there from C$20 billion ($20 billion) to C$50 billion, it said last month.