A man walks past a Scotiabank branch on Dundas Street West in Toronto in this file photo.Darren Calabrese/The Globe and Mail
The Bank of Nova Scotia says it has reached an agreement to buy Citibank's consumer and small and medium enterprise operations in Colombia as it looks to expand its reach in Latin America.
The bank did not disclose the terms of the deal, but says the transaction through its subsidiary Banco Colpatria Multibanca Colpatria S.A. is not financially material.
Citibank's operations in Colombia include 47 branches and 424 automated banking machines, while the addition of Citibank's local credit card division will add more than 500,000 new customers to Banco Colpatria's operations.
Scotiabank bought a 51 per cent stake in Banco Colpatria in 2012 and also has a presence in several other Latin American countries including Mexico, Chile and Peru.
It says Banco Colpatria is Colombia's fifth largest banking group with 1.5 million retail, corporate and commercial customers, and $13-billion in assets.
In December, Scotiabank said it had also secured a deal to buy a 68 per cent stake in a Chilean bank for $2.9-billion.