RBC completes Carlin acquisition

The acquisition of New York-based broker-dealer Carlin Financial Group was completed today by RBC Capital Markets, the corporate and investment banking arm of RBC in Toronto, the sixth-largest bank in North America by assets.

The new division, renamed RBC Carlin, will give RBC an average 3.5 billion shares in monthly trading volume, ranking it in the top 10 in the U.S., according to a company statement.

The firm also announced today the launch of a customizable options trading module, Options Pro, which is part of a suite of solutions that RBC Carlin is offering to clients under its new RBC Accel system.

“We believe that this acquisition allows us to create a leading North American electronic-execution platform for investors and expand into multi-asset-class electronic trading,” said Greg Mills, RBC Capital Markets’ head of global-equity sales and trading, after the deal was first announced in October. (Investment News, Nov. 20.)

“Emerging hedge fund managers, professional traders and other clients of Carlin Financial Group will continue to receive the same high quality of service they’ve come to rely on, and will now also have access to the full range of capital markets products and services we offer in the U.S.,” Mr. Mills said.