The Bank of Nova Scotia (French: Banque de la Nouvelle-Écosse), commonly known as Scotiabank (French: Banque Scotia), is the third largest bank in Canada by deposits and market capitalization. It serves some 19 million customers in more than 55 countries around the world and offers a broad range of products and services including personal, commercial, corporate and investment banking. With assets above $575 billion, Scotiabank shares trade on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges.

The bank was incorporated by the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia on March 30, 1831, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with William Lawson (1772–1848) serving as the first president. The bank moved its executive offices to Toronto, Ontario, in March 1900. Scotiabank has billed itself as "Canada's International Bank" due to its acquisitions primarily in Latin America and the Caribbean, but also in Europe and India as well. BNS Institution Number (or bank number) is 002.

The company ranked at number 92 on the Forbes Global 2000 listing in 2012 and is currently under the leadership of Richard E. Waugh who serves both in the capacity of President and CEO.

Ricardo Monreal Ávila (b. September 19, 1960 in Fresnillo, Zacatecas) is a Mexican politician affiliated to the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). He is a former senator, a former Governor of Zacatecas and a former member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) being closely identified during his tenure in that party with former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

Monreal Ávila graduated with a bachelor's degree in law from the Autonomous University of Zacatecas (UAZ) and with a Ph.D. in administrative and constitutional law from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He worked as a professor of law for several years and got involved in several agricultural programs and farmers' organizations during most of the 1980s.

In 1991 he became president of the state chapter of the Revolutionary Institutional Party, a political institution he represented twice at the Chamber of Deputies, once at the local congress and twice at the Senate. In 1998, after failing to become the PRI candidate for governor in Zacatecas, he switched sides and joined the left-of-center Party of the Democratic Revolution, winning the election with 44.6% of the votes.