Developing an integrated prime brokerage business really fills a niche for us in our U.S. product set," Santina said.
Major Canadian banks have been beefing up their U.S. investment banking divisions at a time when global firms, especially European lenders, have been pulling back.
"As some of those global players pull back, there will be opportunities for us... to be able to step in and fill some of those gaps," Gibson said.
In June, Bank of Montreal said it would buy Minneapolis-based mergers and acquisitions advisory firm Greene Holcomb Fisher, to branch out in the U.S. Midwest.
Royal Bank of Canada has been expanding organically and has a strong U.S. investment banking business.
TD Bank was looking to double its U.S. capital markets business in three to four years, Gibson told Reuters last year.