TORONTO, ON - May 21, 2015 /CNW/ - Scotia iTRADE is pleased to announce that they were awarded first place for customer service in MoneySense magazine's 3^rd annual report on the best discount brokerages in Canada. Scotia iTRADE was also cited as one of the best discount brokerages in the country, with top marks for "ease of use" and "market intelligence."

"We work exceptionally hard to deliver the best customer service in the industry, so we're both incredibly proud and grateful to be recognized by MoneySense and Surviscor," said Karine Abgrall, Managing Director, Client Contact Centres at Scotia iTRADE. "Winning for Best Customer Service shows the dedication our entire team has to always meeting and exceeding the high expectations of our clients."

MoneySense magazine made special mention of Scotia iTRADE's many user-friendly features, including "how investors can prepopulate their order tickets to make trades faster -- a perk for active traders who tend to buy and sell in standard blocks."

"Scotia iTRADE is another perennial top performer," said the report. It offers active investors "a good level of supporting information to help users make faster, more informed trades" and "stands out for providing (customer) support on evenings and weekends."

Released in partnership with Surviscor, a business analysis firm that conducts detailed surveys of discount brokerages, the report also called Scotia iTRADE's stock-screening tools "excellent," and said its online chat feature is available on key screens where (direct investors) are most likely to have a question."

Earlier this year, Scotia iTRADE also won the "Gold" Call Center First Call Resolution (FCR) Best Practice Award in the "Performance Management System" category. This is a prestigious award from Service Quality Measurement Group (SQM), a well-respected industry research firm which has been evaluating North America's top call centres since 1996.

About Scotia iTRADE

Scotia iTRADE is Scotiabank's online brokerage service. At Scotia iTRADE, direct investors can choose from a range of trading platforms and benefit from low commissions, a variety of online tools and resources, as well as investor education customized by skill level. For more information please visit www.scotiaitrade.com.

Scotia iTRADE® (Order-Execution Only Accounts) is a division of Scotia Capital Inc. ("SCI"). SCI is a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund and the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada. Scotia iTRADE does not provide investment advice or recommendations and investors are responsible for their own investment decisions. ®Registered trademark of The Bank of Nova Scotia. Used under license.

About Scotiabank
Scotiabank is Canada's international bank and a leading financial services provider in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean and Central America, and parts of Asia. We are dedicated to helping our 21 million customers become better off through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking. With a team of more than 86,000 employees and assets of $852 billion (as at January 31, 2015), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto (TSX: BNS) and New York Exchanges (NYSE: BNS).