RBC to pay $16.5 million to clients in regulatory settlement

TORONTO (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Canada (Toronto:RY.TO - News) on Tuesday agreed to pay C$21.8 million ($16.5 million) in compensation to clients who were charged excess fees for mutual fund products and fee-based accounts.

Canada's biggest lender agreed to make the payments as part of a settlement with the Ontario Securities Commission, the country's biggest securities regulator.

A number of other Canadian financial institutions have agreed to similar settlements.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (Toronto:CM.TO - News) agreed to pay out C$73.3 million in compensation for excess fees last October. Bank of Montreal (Toronto:BMO.TO - News) agreed to pay C$49.9 million to customers last December.

Fund manager CI Investments agreed to a C$156 million settlement last February and Bank of Nova Scotia (Toronto:BNS.TO - News) agreed to a C$20 million settlement last July. Toronto-Dominion Bank (Toronto:TD.TO - News) agreed to pay C$13.5 million to customers in 2014.

RBC will also make voluntary payments totaling C$975,000 to the OSC under the terms of the settlement, the regulator said.

(Reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by Leslie Adler, Bernard Orr)