Scotia Capital's history dates back to 1832 - the year when its parent company, The Bank of Nova Scotia, was founded. For the duration of the 19th century, and throughout the next, bank branches expanded across Canada, into the U.S. and overseas. In addition to its growing retail services, The Bank of Nova Scotia began providing corporate banking services from its New York offices in the early 80's. By 1983, in response to increasing client demand, corporate banking services were offered in other U.S. cities and Canada.

In 1988, The Bank of Nova Scotia acquired McLeod Young Weir (later renamed ScotiaMcLeod Inc.) - a leading Toronto brokerage firm, founded in 1921. In November 1995, ScotiaMcLeod was formally integrated with the capital markets businesses of The Bank of Nova Scotia under the marketing banner Scotia Capital Markets. Complementing the combined capabilities of this new division, The Bank of Nova Scotia successfully acquired the long-standing leading dealer in bullion, The Mocatta Group, and formed what is now known as ScotiaMocatta.

On November 1st, 1999, The Bank of Nova Scotia combined the strength of both its Corporate Banking and Scotia Capital Markets divisions through its new, integrated organization, Scotia Capital.

In 2000, the Scotiabank Group completed its acquisition of Grupo Financiero Inverlat S.A., a well-known financial group with over 60 years of experience in the Mexican market. In 2005, an integrated NAFTA Wholesale Banking platform was created under the Scotia Capital marketing banner to optimize the delivery of our capabilities to clients across the region.

In June, 2005, The Bank of Nova Scotia acquired Waterous & Co., and merged it with the oil and gas M&A operations of Scotia Capital, to form Scotia Waterous, a powerful global leader in oil and gas M&A.