Three months ago The Bank of Nova Scotia declared its intent to enter the film financing fray. As the interest in film and tv production financing is at the corporate banking level under the auspices of Scotia’s media group, there is a substantial pot to draw upon. The minimum threshold for consideration would be at the $1 million level, but financing propositions in the $2 million to $5 million and up level are more typical of the kind of transactions being sought.

Karen Fisman, who heads up Scotia’s Toronto-based film financing division, is currently working on a couple of larger lines with companies who have ‘tangible assets,’ and is also close to doing business with a smaller company. There are two kinds of transactions currently being offered, financing dedicated to a single project or longer-term deals for a multi-pic production slate.

In addition to Fisman, vp Bob Finlay, head of the media group, is also part of the film financing thrust, and they’re looking at hiring an additional team member (someone formerly with the finance department of a public production company) on a contract basis.

Fisman says Scotia’s media group deals extensively with broadcasters and cable companies, which puts them in an advantageous position to do their due diligence, and through the connections with the bank’s media group in New York and London, they can also assess international buyers and distributors quickly.

Fisman, acknowledging the Royal Bank’s entrenched position in the market, says she’s trying to be more creative, and has been talking with other areas in the bank trying to generate ways to be useful to production companies, and to introduce elements of flexibility.

In Canada, all of Scotia’s media-related projects go through the Toronto office, either direct or via offices in Montreal or Vancouver.