Royal Bank of Canada is now offering a multi-language telephone service that can assist clients in more than 150 languages.

RBC says the new multi-language telephone service is designed to ensure Canadians from diverse backgrounds can address their financial affairs in their preferred language.

The service makes available a network of more than 2,600 specialized interpreters to help with day-to-day basic banking inquiries such as opening an account, paying bills or requesting foreign exchange information.

Customers call 1-800-ROYAL 1-1 to access the RBC agent-assisted service, and within minutes can be chatting with an interpreter via a three-way confidential conference call.

“We’re always looking for ways to make it easier for customers to do business with us,” says Mark Whitmell, director, cultural markets. “Now with a multi-language telephone service, customers of diverse backgrounds can make the call on their terms.”

Through word-of-mouth alone, the service introduced in April has been averaging about 500 calls per month, with the most common language requested being Spanish, followed by Russian, Vietnamese, Mandarin and Korean. This new service complements RBC’s dedicated phone line (1 888 ROYAL 9-8) set up for Chinese speaking clients, which offers service in Cantonese and Mandarin and fields more than 20,000 calls per month.

RBC Direct Investing also offers telephone trading and customer service in Cantonese and Mandarin at 1 800-667-8668.

These and other services for newcomers are featured on RBC’s newly redesigned website dedicated to new Canadians (www.rbc.com/canada), which is available in English, French and simplified Chinese. The site, first launched in 2005, provides newcomers with relevant and tailored information to give them the confidence they need to make financial decisions at every stage of their transition to Canada — before they arrive, as they get settled and as they plan for their future.

This month the bank also released through its branches and Web site new step-by-step fact sheets in 14 languages, introducing Canadian products and services from the perspective of a newcomer.