Institution profile · Big Six bank (Schedule I)
National Bank
ActiveNational Bank of CanadaCDIC
National Bank of Canada is the sixth of the Big Six, headquartered in Montreal. It merged with Canadian Western Bank in 2025 and is buying Laurentian Bank’s retail and small-business portfolios, expected to close on November 1, 2026.
Profile facts checked October 30, 2026
At a glance
- Legal name
- National Bank of Canada
- Type
- Big Six bank (Schedule I)
- Head office
- Montreal, QC
- Founded
- 1859 — Roots in the 1859 founding of Banque Nationale in Quebec City.
- Regulator
- Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) for safety and soundness; Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) for consumer protection
- Cheapest everyday account
- The Connected — $215 a year for the Everyday example
- OBSI banking cases
- 66 opened in fiscal 2025 (Nov 1, 2024 – Oct 31, 2025)
- Website
- www.nbc.ca
Deposit protection
CDIC member. CDIC lists CWB Financial Group and Motive Financial among its trade names.
Names CDIC lists for these members: CWB Financial Group, Motive Financial, National Bank, National Bank Financial Group, National Bank Financial Markets, National Bank Private Banking 1859, National Bank Wealth Management, NBC, Natcan Trust.
Our assessment: 64.7/100, #7 of 13 in our bank review
Strongest on app rating and branch and ATM access. Trails on everyday cost. Cheapest account for everyday use: $215 a year.
Cost 41 · Access 86 · App rating 88 · Complaints per client 73 · not scored: rate. How the review works.
National Bank chequing accounts and what they cost
National Bank lists 3 chequing accounts with FCAC. For our “Everyday” example (25 debit purchases, 6 bills, 5 e-Transfers and a $1,000 low balance a month), the cheapest account open to anyone is The Connected at $215 a year. Accounts limited to a group are marked.
| Account | Monthly fee and waiver | Included | Fees a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Connected | $15.95/mo, or $0 with a $4,500 minimum balance | Branch: 0 · self-serve: unlimited | $215 |
| The Total | $28.95/mo, or $0 with a $6,000 minimum balance | Unlimited | $347 |
| The Minimalist | $3.95/mo, no balance waiver | Branch: 0 · self-serve: 18 | $446 |
On the official lists
| Legal entity | OSFI list | CDIC member |
|---|---|---|
| National Bank of Canada | OSFI — Schedule I domestic bank | Yes |
| Natcan Trust Company | OSFI — trust company | Yes |
Facts, with sources
- Head office at National Bank Place, 800 Saint-Jacques, Montreal.Source: nbc.ca
- Completed the acquisition of Canadian Western Bank on February 3, 2025 and merged with it on March 1, 2025.Source: nbc.ca
- Is acquiring Laurentian Bank’s retail and SME portfolios; scheduled to close November 1, 2026 (no closing announcement seen as of that date), with clients migrated by late 2026.Source: nbc.ca
Your own pattern can change the order. Put your numbers into the true-cost finder to rank National Bank’s accounts against everyone else’s.
Complaints that reached the ombudsman
OBSI, the ombudsman for banking, opened 66 banking cases about National Bank of Canada in fiscal 2025 (Nov 1, 2024 – Oct 31, 2025), closed 37, and resolved 5 to the complainant’s satisfaction. Across all banks and credit unions, OBSI opened 5,438 banking cases that year (+113% on the year before) and 25% of closed cases ended with money paid.
Counts aren’t adjusted for size, so bigger banks have more cases. A complaint reaches OBSI only after the bank’s own process (up to 56 days). Source: OBSI Annual Report 2025, released March 13, 2026. How to complain.
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