Bank of Nova Scotia will soon lose its standing as Canada’s most international bank.

The lender’s moves in the past 10 months to exit some Caribbean markets will bring Scotiabank’s international presence down to 33 countries, putting it behind larger rival Royal Bank of Canada, which has operations in 36 countries.

Scotiabank Chief Executive Officer Brian Porter has been shrinking Scotiabank’s global footprint to narrow the lender’s international focus to four Latin American nations: Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Chile. The Toronto-based lender, which once was in 54 countries and territories, has announced exits from 21, including Turkey, Russia, Haiti, Egypt and Taiwan, since 2013.

Even with the pullback, Scotiabank still generates more than a third of its earnings from international banking, with sizable retail operations across Latin America as well as in the Caribbean and Asia. About 62 per cent of the net income from the bank’s international division comes from Latin America.