Royal Bank of Canada’s Brazilian arm, which officially launched last week, is to take on at least eight client advisors by the end of 2009, regional chief José Luiz Sa de Castro Lima told WealthBriefing.

The new offices in São Paulo and the southern city of Porto Alegre already have 20 employees, including back office staff, six client advisors and a management team. Key management players include Mr Lima, managing director Claudio Von Gal and investment head Victor Ziruolo. Mr Lima says he expects the team to expand to between 35 and 40 by the end of the year. All staff were recruited locally.

RBC’S new operation was authorised by the Brazilian Central Bank in mid-December. Canada’s biggest bank has had a presence in the Portuguese-speaking country since 1919 but only last year decided to convert its two representative offices into its first domestic wealth management provider in Latin America.

RBC Brazil DTVM, as the new subsidiary is known, will advise wealthy Brazilians on a full range of local investment products, including hedge funds, mutual funds, equities and securities.

RBC currently has no plans to open more offices in Brazil but Mr Lima says the bank will target clients across the country from its existing offices, paying particular attention to the country’s wealthy South-East, from which about one-third of GDP originates.

Royal Bank of Canada already has substantial representation in Latin America and now boasts offices in seven countries. Though Brazil has the bank’s only domestic wealth management operation, it also has representative offices in Mexico, Venezuela and Argentina and international investment advisory offices in Panama, Uruguay and Chile.