It all began on New Year's Eve in 1831 at Merchants Exchange Coffee House in Halifax where a group of businessmen met, They discussed the need to have a public bank instead of the privately owned Halifax Banking Company.

Three months into the new year, on March 30, 1832 the first Scotia Bank was created in Halifax.

In March 1832 it was incorporated and was given the name of Bank of Nova Scotia. It became the first chartered bank in Nova Scotia.

By the end of August of the same year it opened for business in the John Roman's building.

During the following few years it had branches in Maritimes, one being in Sackville.

The bank's goal was to facilitate trans-Atlantic trade. Since then, nearly 190 years later, it has expanded its operations nationally and globally.