Chris Hodgson, the group head of Canadian banking at the Bank of Nova Scotia in Toronto, has had a busy few months, pulling the trigger on two major acquisitions that have shaken up the wealth-management landscape in Canada.

And Hodgson, who has been charged with building Scotiabank into one of the leading wealth-management firms in Canada, says the bank has the resources to make more purchases.

“There’s a lot of consolidation that has occurred in Canada, and there will be more,” says Hodgson, 54, who has run both the domestic bank and wealth-management operations for Scotiabank since 2006. “You’ll see more that will come out over the next two or three years on consolidation.”

Since 2007, Scotiabank has been the most active acquirer of wealth-management properties among the Big Five banks. In October, the bank announced it had purchased Sun Life Financial Inc. ’s 37.6% stake in CI Financial Income Fund, both based in Toronto, for $2.3 billion, and in July, Scotiabank bought Toronto-based E*Trade Canada Securities Corp. for $444 million.

Earlier in the year, the bank bought slightly less than 20% of Toronto-based DundeeWealth Inc. and all of Dundee Bankfor more than $610 million, and purchased Montreal-based TradeFreedom Securities Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

Hodgson says that the credit crisis and resulting financial turmoil have turned some wealth-management firms into willing sellers and that Scotiabank, because of its financial strength, has been able to take advantage.

“The market environment has created opportunities,” he says. “We continue to be in a position, because of how we’ve managed our business, to look for opportunities that are coming out of these weaker markets.”

The big question now is what Scotiabank will do with its new wealth-management properties. Some analysts speculate that the bank will sell its mutual fund business, Scotia Securities Inc., to CI, taking a larger stake in CI in return. As of Sept. 30, CI had $62.9 billion of mutual fund assets under management, while Scotia Securities had $18.4 billion in AUM, by far the smallest player among the Big Five banks.

For the moment, Hodgson is holding his cards close to the vest, saying that no changes are imminent: “We’re quite happy with what we have from an ownership perspective today. We will continue to look for ways to build our relationship with both Dundee and CI. As we look down the road, if there is an opportunity for us to expand those relationships, we will certainly take that into account and look for ways that we can do that.”

Hodgson says Scotiabank will talk with CI management to see how the companies can work together, including Scotiabank providing white-label banking services and products to CI dsictribution channel. The bank will also seek to deepen its business with Sun Life, which already provides it with insurance-related services.

“We will be looking at ways we can expand our insurance business and see if there are ways that we can partner with Sun Life,” Hodgson says. “We will also be exploring white-label banking opportunities for their distribution channels.”

Scotiabank continues to build its relationship with DundeeWealth, Hodgson says. Earlier this year, the bank directed about $400 million in AUM in its Scotia Partners Portfolios-branded wrap program to Dundee, adding the firm to several third-party managers handling the Partners Portfolios’ assets.

“We did an independent review,” he says, “and because of the performance Dundee has had, we brought it in.”

Scotiabank intends to keep Dundee Bank as a separate entity, providing products to the advisory channel. This year, Dundee Bank introduced an investment loan vehicle and is considering launching still other products. Since closing the deal for Dundee Bank on Sept, 30, 2007, Dundee Bank deposits have increased by 48% to slightly less than $4 billion from $2.7 billion. The fact that Scotiabank ultimately stands behind those deposits is a big reason for that growth, Hodgson says.

Scotiabank’s three discount brokerage properties — ScotiaMcLeod Direct Investing, E*Trade and Trade Freedom — will be brought together under one brand name in 2009, Hodgson says. The combined discount brokerage will probably offer segmented services for the very active trader, the active trader and the mass market.

“We have the components of a very solid business here,” Hodgson says. “So, that has helped us and makes us more competitive in the marketplace.”

@page_break@Hodgson insists that Scotiabank has exercised discipline in making acquisitions, staying on strategy and not overpaying.

“For all the deals we’ve done, we’ve looked at a lot of other [opportunities], and chosen not to pursue them,” Hodgson says. “We absolutely follow our discipline.”

Growing the wealth-management business hasn’t all been about acquisitions. During the past few years, the bank has put an emphasis on building its wealth-management strength at the retail level, opening branches, investing in technology and hiring advisors, Hodgson says. Scotiabank has also made efforts to improve the lineup and performance of its proprietary funds, including hiring a trio of senior executives last year to bolster its money-management arm, Scotia Cassels Investment Counsel Ltd.

“As a result of [these changes], we’ve had 30 months of consecutive net mutual fund sales,” says Hodgson, adding that the winning run will probably end when the October numbers come out. “With the mar.kets turning downward, we will be into some redemptions.”

Born in Winnipeg, Hodgson spent his younger years on the rink, becoming an accomplished enough skater to play Junior A hockey and eventually suit up for Dartmouth College in the U.S. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science there in 1977.

It was after university that Hodgson decided to enter the advisory business: “My interest in the investment business came from a lot of reading and some exposure to actually trading in the markets myself.”

After starting out with investment dealer A.E. Ames & Co. Ltd. (later acquired by Dominion Securities Corp. Ltd.), Hodgson joined McLeod Young Weir in 1982. It was eventually bought by Scotiabank and evolved into ScotiaMcLeod Inc. Hodgson moved up the ladder from advisor to branch manager to Ontario manager to national sales manager.

In 1998, Hodgson left ScotiaMcLeod to join Toronto-based Altamira Investment Services Inc. He eventually become president and CEO. During his time there, the company was sold to Montreal-based National Bank of Canada. In 2003, Hodgson rejoined Scotiabank as senior managing director of wealth management.

In early 2006, Hodgson took on his current role as head of Scotiabank’s Canadian retail banking operation, as well as keeping his duties as head of wealth management. Hodgson admits that taking on the banking role, after a career spent in the advisory side of the business, was a challenge.

“There was definitely a learning curve, there’s no doubt about that,” he says. “With the people we have, and by spending quite a bit of time on this over the past few years, that helped me quite a bit.”

Away from work, Hodgson enjoys reading, running and lifting weights. He and his wife, Pam, and their three children — who are either in university or launching careers — are training for a family climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro, which they hope to try at the end of next year. IE