TORONTO and CORNWALL, Sept. 20 /CNW/ - Scotiabank today announced that it will be enhancing customer care through the opening of a new bilingual customer contact centre in Cornwall, Ontario. The 40-seat centre is scheduled to open in early 2011.

"We are constantly reviewing the ways in which we are providing our services in order to give the very best in customer care," said Anatol von Hahn, Executive Vice-President, Personal and Commercial Banking, Canada. "This new centre will give us the opportunity to build on our English-language services and expand services to our French-language customers."

One of Canada's most bilingual cities, Cornwall is currently experiencing positive economic growth and in 2009 experienced a record year in construction activity. The new centre will be located on Brookdale Avenue, one of the city's main commercial streets.

"We are very excited to see this investment by one of the world's most respected financial institutions," said Mayor Bob Kilger. "Our workforce has demonstrated time and time again that their skills and work ethic can help organizations succeed. On behalf of City Council and our citizens, we welcome Scotiabank's continuing investment in Cornwall."

Effective September 21, anyone interested in applying for a position at the Cornwall Contact Centre can visit Scotiabank's online career centre at www.scotiabank.com.

Scotiabank's Contact Centres provide a broad range of financial products and services to retail banking and small business customers across Canada. The Cornwall Contact Centre joins three other centres located in Toronto, Halifax, and Calgary, which handle several million calls in French and English annually. The Toronto and Calgary Contact Centres are recipients of the Platinum Contact Center Employer of Choice(R) (CCEOC) certificate from the CEOC Institute and the Atlantic Contact centre has been recognized several times by Service Quality Measurement (SQM) Group for achieving 'World Class' customer and employee satisfaction.

"We have a long and proud history in the City of Cornwall dating back to 1928 with the establishment of our first branch here, and most recently have played a lead role in helping many area non-profit groups with their projects," said Stephen Gaskin, Vice President, Toronto Contact Centre who will oversee this office. "The access to a bilingual and talented workforce combined with an emphasis on highly modernized technology is one of the reasons why we are locating our newest contact centre here. As a contact centre this office also offers an opportunity to explore career development options elsewhere in the Bank."

Scotiabank is one of North America's premier financial institutions and Canada's most international bank. With close to 70,000 employees, Scotiabank Group and its affiliates serve approximately 14.6 million customers in some 50 countries around the world. Scotiabank offers a diverse range of products and services including personal, commercial, corporate and investment banking. With more than $523 billion in assets (as at July 31, 2010), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto (BNS) and New York Exchanges (BNS). For more information please visit www.scotiabank.com.