Scotiabank plans to revive metals desk as prices soar

Bank of Nova Scotia is planning to revive the metals trading desk it dismantled at the peak of the pandemic, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Canadian bank has hired recruiters to reach out to commodities traders, sales specialists and strategists to staff the unit, said the people, who declined to be named discussing private information.

The new desk will trade, lend and hedge raw materials including precious and base metals, with an initial focus on the former, the people added.

Scotiabank didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The move follows record-breaking rallies in gold, copper and silver that have renewed interest in the metals trade. President Donald Trump’s disruptive tariff agenda has generated lucrative arbitrage opportunities for copper, spurred price-spread trading that drew billions of dollars of bullion to the US, and triggered an historic silver squeeze in the London market in October.

The bank shut its historic precious metals unit in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic upended the supply chain for physical gold, and after US investigations into the unit’s trading activities. That put an end to what was once one of the world’s top gold-trading businesses, with a history dating back to the 17th century.

(By Yvonne Yue Li and Jacob Lorinc)