There’s an HSBC Canada branch across the street from the building where The Globe and Mail’s Ottawa bureau is located. Working in the bureau, I used to stop into the branch now and then to use the bank machine there. I wasn’t an HSBC client, but the bank was part of an ATM network I had access to a few years back at no cost. That’s as close as I ever came to dealing with HSBC, but I will still miss the bank’s quietly important role in Canadian banking. Earlier this week, Royal Bank of Canada launched a $13.5-billion offer...