Mark Chandler, dean of Toronto’s trading floors, is leaving Royal Bank of Canada next month after 20 years at the firm.

Chandler, 60, will retire from his role as head of Canadian fixed income and currency strategy at the bank’s RBC Capital Markets division by the end of October, according to an internal memo by the country’s second-largest lender by assets.

“Throughout his time with RBC, Mark has made significant contributions across the platform and the industry as he is very well-regarded internationally as a leading authority on the Canadian economy, markets and policy analysis,” said the Sept. 24 memo by Jim Byrd, global head of rates, and Canadian research head Andre-Philippe Hardy.

Chandler began his career as an economist for Bank of Montreal in 1984, before moving to Royal Bank in the latter part of the decade. He later joined Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in Toronto in the mid-1990s, where he spent six years advising on bond and currency strategy -- a tenure that overlapped with Mark Carney, then an investment banker at the New York-based firm. Chandler returned to Royal Bank in 2006.

Chandler’s time on Bay Street made him a doyen of the business and the first stop for many global investors seeking input on Canada. His career bookended by two shocks -- the stock market crash in 1987 and now the pandemic. In his four decades as economist and strategist, Chandler also witnessed first-hand the long historic decline in bond yields that began in the early 1990s.

“You never know what’s coming around the corner,” Chandler said in a phone interview. The best approach to steering clients is to provide them with “consistent and reliable” advice and avoid the temptation to make wild predictions, he said.

The memo didn’t name his replacement. A representative from RBC Capital Markets declined to comment.

“Mark has been a key fixture of the Canadian macro and fixed income community for some time, and his presence will be missed,” said Ian Pollick, head of fixed income, currency and commodity research at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, who worked with Chandler at Royal Bank for five years.