National Bank Direct Brokerage
By Claude-Frédéric Robert, President, National Bank Direct Brokerage
Note from the President, Claude-Frédéric Robert
Claude-Frédéric started working at National Bank in 2011 and has been president of NBDB since 2018. Under his leadership, the management team of NBDB has generated many innovations that have significantly improved the client experience, ranging from the deployment of a new platform to the launch of the best pricing in Canada for bank-owned direct brokers.
Claude-Frédéric plans on simplifying the client experience even further and increasing the pace of change by continuing to launch new services and tools.
To learn more about National Bank Direct Brokerage, visit nbdb.ca.
How 2020 went
2020 was a fantastic year for us and our clients. We are very pleased that we delivered several important initiatives, including the launch of the best commission pricing in the industry. Our goal was to offer pricing that met the needs of our clients, particularly active investors. And we succeeded! This is not the first time that National Bank Direct Brokerage has led on pricing in the direct brokerage industry: we were the very first to lower commission fees on ETFs to $0.
2020 also saw the launch of our new transactional platform, more adapted to the needs of active investors. We have made several improvements along the way, listening to our clients’ feedback, to ensure that the platform is exceptional, and we are very proud of the result.
In addition to our new transactional platform, which was conceived with the goal of facilitating transactions, this year we added the Market-Q transactional application, again with the goal of improving our clients’ experience.
Throughout the years, we have always held numerous educational events, and despite the turmoil caused by the pandemic, we continued supporting our clients to become more self-directed by offering all kinds of events. In fact, we’ve even done more! Knowing that our clients needed to stay home, we offered daily online webinars. We created the “NBDB Break…” events, a series of 15-minute webinars that allowed participants to learn a little something during their breaks. Currently, we are also offering a series of options webinars, to further educate clients on this product that, at first glance, may seem complex.
2020 was certainly marked by many unforeseen events, but thanks to our powerful tools and our knowledgeable and dedicated employees, we were able to navigate through the crisis with ease. All of these factors allow us to say with conviction that we are leaders in the direct brokerage industry. And this is only the beginning!
What we’re looking forward to for 2021
We have lofty ambitions for the year 2021. True to ourselves, we want to be a driving force of positive change in the direct brokerage industry. We are preparing an unprecedented offer that will delight investors of all stripes.
National Bank Direct Brokerage wants to meet the needs of all its clients and wants to offer them the best in class. This year, we will go even further and offer new tools and services for self-directed investors that are not yet available at other discount brokers. We will be the direct broker that offers you the most innovative solutions.
Before the end of 2020, we will be the first broker to offer access to OptionsPlay, a financial education and analysis tool specializing in options. OptionsPlay will allow you to visualize and compare trading strategies, let you easily find additional technical analysis, and help you find and choose covered calls. Training programs will continue to be our priority, in order to educate and empower our clients and thus help them better manage their investments and have a better-performing portfolio. Be on the lookout: We will be holding a number of online and in-person events throughout the year, if the situation permits.
We will also be the first bank-owned direct broker to launch a pilot project on a retail securities lending program. NBDB clients will be able to earn additional income on their fully paid shares in their cash and margin accounts.