The HSBC to RBC transition project has now officially concluded
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this important transition — especially our partners and business users — for your collaboration, patience, and adaptability throughout the process.
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) was granted regulatory approval to acquire HSBC Canada (HSBC) in December 2023, and legally closed the transition date on March 28, 2024. This approval required the mandatory transition of all UBC’s HSBC Canadian accounts to RBC by March 28, 2025. However, UBC was granted a special status where both HSBC Canada and RBC accounts ran in parallel while the University fully transitions to RBC.
This multi-phase project began in March 2024 and has since delivered several key changes, including the full transition of banking services to RBC. These changes covered tax payments, payroll, benefits, supplier and student transactions, credit cards, and system integrations with Workday Finance and Workday Student and Integrity.
With these changes now in place, all UBC HSBC Canada bank accounts have been fully transitioned to RBC. The university should no longer receive payments into HSBC Canada accounts. Please note that HSBC account in the U.S. and India remain active.
Any remaining outstanding actions will be tracked and managed operationally by UBC Treasury Cash team. UBC Treasury will also continue to monitor and improve Province deposits to ensure funds are directed to the appropriate RBC accounts as efficiently and accurately as possible.
For external users who have not yet updated UBC’s RBC banking details, a follow-up report will be shared with the relevant business groups in early June — we appreciate your continued support in helping to complete this transition.
For future queries, please visit the ‘Need Help’ section or contact the Treasury team at treasury.cash@ubc.ca
Thank you again for your support in making this a successful transition!
Transition Timeline
Phase 1
The first phase (February 5 – March 28, 2024) addresses critical banking and services required by legal day 1 (LD 1) as of March 28, 2024. RBC accounts and profiles will be created and ready for use in this phase. From March 28, 2024, tax payments to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) are completed within the RBC tax accounts. The line of credit, bank guarantees, and standby letter of credit will be transitioned over to RBC. Physical deposit bags will be changed to green to identify HSBC deposits.
Phase 2
Starting in April 2024, UBC commenced Phase 2 of the transition including the transition of all UBC IT and banking systems and processes to RBC. This impacted incoming and outgoing payments, including electronic and physical payments to suppliers, payroll, and accounts receivables including credit card and student payments. Once UBC’s IT systems were fully configured, tested and deployed, front end users were able to start using RBC’s online banking platform, RBC Express and RBC assets, such as RBC cheques. All banking information and our new RBC account numbers were communicated to external suppliers, customers and donors to start using.
At the completion of Phase 2 all of UBC’s HSBC Canada bank accounts will be fully transitioned to RBC and the university will cease to process and receive payments into these accounts.
Phase 3
During this phase (Winter 2025 – Summer 2025) period, UBC will focus on stabilizing and monitoring our accounts and ensure all integrations and business processes are running efficiently and resolve any issues. Further the UBC community will be expected to communicate and follow up with any external users who have not updated UBC’s banking information to RBC.