Subject to Completion Preliminary Term Sheet dated January 14, 2022

Filed Pursuant to Rule 433 Registration Statement No. 333-259205 (To Prospectus dated September 14, 2021, Prospectus Supplement dated September 14, 2021 and Product Supplement EQUITY INDICES LIRN-1  dated November 9, 2021)

	Units $10 principal amount per unit CUSIP No.		Pricing Date* Settlement Date* Maturity Date*	January  , 2022 February  , 2022 January  , 2026
			*Subject to change based on the actual date the notes are priced for initial sale to the public (the “pricing date”)
	Capped Notes Linked to a Global Equity Index Basket ■       Maturity of approximately four years ■       1.5-to-1 upside exposure to increases in the Basket, subject to a capped return of [50.00% to 54.00%] ■       The Basket will be comprised of the S&P 500® Index, the Russell 2000® Index, the EURO STOXX 50® Index, the FTSE® 100 Index, the Nikkei Stock Average, the Swiss Market Index, the S&P/ASX 200 Index, and the FTSE® China 50 Index. The S&P 500® Index will be given an initial weight of 55.00%, the Russell 2000® Index will be given an initial weight of 15.00%, the EURO STOXX 50® Index will be given an initial weight of 12.00%, each of the FTSE® 100 Index and the Nikkei Stock Average will be given an initial weight of 6.00%, each of the Swiss Market Index and the S&P/ASX 200 Index will be given an initial weight of 2.25% and the FTSE® China 50 Index will be given an initial weight of 1.50% ■       1-to-1 downside exposure to decreases in the Basket, with up to 100.00% of your principal at risk ■       All payments occur at maturity and are subject to the credit risk of Royal Bank of Canada ■       No periodic interest payments ■        In addition to the underwriting discount set forth below, the notes include a hedging-related charge of $0.075 per unit. See “Structuring the Notes” ■        Limited secondary market liquidity, with no exchange listing ■        The notes are unsecured debt securities and are not savings accounts or insured deposits of a bank. The notes are not insured or guaranteed by the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation, the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or any other governmental agency of Canada or the United States

	Per Unit	Total
Public offering price(1)	$10.00		$
Underwriting discount(1)	$0.25		$
Proceeds, before expenses, to RBC	$9.75		$

(1)

For any purchase of 300,000 units or more in a single transaction by an individual investor or in combined transactions with the investor’s household in this offering, the public offering price and the underwriting discount will be $9.95 per unit and $0.20 per unit, respectively. See “Supplement to the Plan of Distribution” below.

Are Not FDIC Insured

Are Not Bank Guaranteed

May Lose Value

◾	Product supplement EQUITY INDICES LIRN-1 dated November 9, 2021: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001000275/000114036121037165/brhc10030468_424b5.htm

◾	Series I MTN prospectus supplement dated September 14, 2021: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1000275/000121465921009472/rbcsupp911210424b3.htm

◾	Prospectus dated September 14, 2021:  https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1000275/000121465921009470/rbc911212424b3.htm

Ending Value		Percentage Change from the Starting Value to the Ending Value		Redemption Amount per Unit		Total Rate of Return on the Notes
0.00		-100.00%		$0.00		-100.00%
50.00		-50.00%		$5.00		-50.00%
80.00		-20.00%		$8.00		-20.00%
90.00		-10.00%		$9.00		-10.00%
95.00		-5.00%		$9.50		-5.00%
97.00		-3.00%		$9.70		-3.00%
100.00(1)(2)		0.00%		$10.00		0.00%
102.00		2.00%		$10.30		3.00%
105.00		5.00%		$10.75		7.50%
110.00		10.00%		$11.50		15.00%
120.00		20.00%		$13.00		30.00%
130.00		30.00%		$14.50		45.00%
134.67		34.67%		$15.20(3)		52.00%
140.00		40.00%		$15.20		52.00%
150.00		50.00%		$15.20		52.00%
160.00		60.00%		$15.20		52.00%

(1)

This is the Threshold Value.

(2)

The Starting Value will be set to 100.00 on the pricing date.

(3)

The Redemption Amount per unit cannot exceed the hypothetical Capped Value.

Example 1
The Ending Value is 80.00, or 80.00% of the Starting Value:
Starting Value:	100.00
Threshold Value:	100.00
Ending Value:	80.00

Redemption Amount per unit

Example 2
The Ending Value is 120.00, or 120.00% of the Starting Value:
Starting Value:	100.00
Ending Value:	120.00

= $13.00 Redemption Amount per unit

Example 3
The Ending Value is 140.00, or 140.00% of the Starting Value:
Starting Value:	100.00
Ending Value:	140.00

= $16.00, however, because the Redemption Amount for the notes cannot exceed the hypothetical Capped Value, the Redemption Amount will be $15.20 per unit

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Depending on the performance of the Basket as measured shortly before the maturity date, your investment may result in a loss; there is no guaranteed return of principal.

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Your return on the notes may be less than the yield you could earn by owning a conventional fixed or floating rate debt security of comparable maturity.

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Payments on the notes are subject to our credit risk, and actual or perceived changes in our creditworthiness are expected to affect the value of the notes. If we become insolvent or are unable to pay our obligations, you may lose your entire investment.

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Your investment return is limited to the return represented by the Capped Value and may be less than a comparable investment directly in the stocks included in the Basket Components.

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The initial estimated value of the notes is an estimate only, determined as of a particular point in time by reference to our and our affiliates’ pricing models. These pricing models consider certain assumptions and variables, including our credit spreads, our internal funding rate on the pricing date, mid-market terms on hedging transactions, expectations on interest rates and volatility, price-sensitivity analysis, and the expected term of the notes. These pricing models rely in part on certain forecasts about future events, which may prove to be incorrect.

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The public offering price you pay for the notes will exceed the initial estimated value. If you attempt to sell the notes prior to maturity, their market value may be lower than the price you paid for them and lower than the initial estimated value. This is due to, among other things, changes in the value of the Basket, our internal funding rate, and the inclusion in the public offering price of the underwriting discount and the hedging related charge, all as further described in “Structuring the Notes” below. These factors, together with various credit, market and economic factors over the term of the notes, are expected to reduce the price at which you may be able to sell the notes in any secondary market and will affect the value of the notes in complex and unpredictable ways.

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The initial estimated value does not represent a minimum or maximum price at which we, MLPF&S, BofAS or any of our affiliates would be willing to purchase your notes in any secondary market (if any exists) at any time. The value of your notes at any time after issuance will vary based on many factors that cannot be predicted with accuracy, including the performance of the Basket, our creditworthiness and changes in market conditions.

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A trading market is not expected to develop for the notes. None of us, MLPF&S or BofAS is obligated to make a market for, or to repurchase, the notes. There is no assurance that any party will be willing to purchase your notes at any price in any secondary market.

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Our business, hedging and trading activities, and those of BofAS, MLPF&S and our respective affiliates (including trades in shares of companies included in the Basket Components), and any hedging and trading activities we, BofAS, MLPF&S or our respective affiliates engage in for our clients’ accounts, may affect the market value and return of the notes and may create conflicts of interest with you.

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There may be potential conflicts of interest involving the calculation agent, which is BofAS.  We have the right to appoint and remove the calculation agent.

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Changes in the level of one Basket Component may be offset by changes in the level of the other Basket Components. Due to the different Initial Component Weights, changes in the level of some Basket Components will have a more substantial impact on the value of the Basket than similar changes in the levels of the other Basket Components.

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The index sponsors may adjust each Basket Component in a way that affects its level, and the index sponsors have no obligation to consider your interests.

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You will have no rights of a holder of the securities represented by the Basket Components, and you will not be entitled to receive securities or dividends or other distributions by the issuers of those securities.

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While we, BofAS, MLPF&S or our respective affiliates may from time to time own securities of companies included in the Basket Components, except to the extent that the common stock of Bank of America Corporation (the parent company of BofAS and MLPF&S) is included in the SPX, we, BofAS, MLPF&S and our respective affiliates do not control any company included in the Basket Components, and have not verified any disclosure made by any other company.

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Your return on the notes and the value of the notes may be affected by exchange rate movements and factors affecting the international securities markets, specifically changes in the countries represented by the Basket Components. In addition, you will not obtain the benefit of any increase in the value of the currencies in which the securities included in the Basket Components trade against the U.S. dollar, which you would have received if you had owned the securities represented by the Basket Components during the term of your notes, although the levels of the Basket Components may be adversely affected by general exchange rate movements in the market.

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The U.S. federal income tax consequences of the notes are uncertain, and may be adverse to a holder of the notes.  See “Summary of U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences” below and “U.S. Federal Income Tax Summary” on page PS-28 of product supplement EQUITY INDICES LIRN-1. For a discussion of the Canadian federal income tax consequences of investing in the notes, see “Tax Consequences—Canadian Taxation” in the prospectus dated September 14, 2021.

(A)

each of the New York Stock Exchange and The Nasdaq Stock Market (as to the S&P 500® Index and the Russell 2000® Index), the Eurex (as to the EURO STOXX 50® Index), the London Stock Exchange (as to the FTSE® 100 Index), the Tokyo Stock Exchange (as to the Nikkei Stock Average Index), the SIX Swiss Exchange (as to the Swiss Market Index), the Australian Stock Exchange (as to the S&P/ASX 200 Index), and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (as to the FTSE® China 50 Index) (or any successor to the foregoing exchanges) are open for trading; and

(B)

the Basket Components or any successors thereto are calculated and published.

Basket Component	Bloomberg Symbol	Initial Component Weight	Closing Level(1)(2)	Hypothetical Component Ratio(1)(3)	Initial Basket Value Contribution
S&P 500® Index	SPX	55.00%	4,677.03	0.01175960	55.00
Russell 2000® Index	RTY	15.00%	2,179.810	0.00688133	15.00
EURO STOXX 50® Index	SX5E	12.00%	4,305.83	0.00278692	12.00
FTSE® 100 Index	UKX	6.00%	7,485.28	0.00080157	6.00
Nikkei Stock Average	NKY	6.00%	28,478.56	0.00021068	6.00
Swiss Market Index	SMI	2.25%	12,797.94	0.00017581	2.25
S&P/ASX 200 Index	AS51	2.25%	7,453.347	0.00030188	2.25
FTSE® China 50 Index	XIN0I	1.50%	16,414.26	0.00009138	1.50
				Starting Value	100.00

(1)

The actual closing level of each Basket Component and the resulting actual Component Ratios will be determined on the pricing date, subject to adjustment as more fully described in the section entitled “Description of LIRNS—Basket Market Measures—Determination of the Component Ratio for Each Basket Component “ beginning on page PS-21 of product supplement EQUITY INDICES LIRN-1.

(2)

These were the closing levels of the Basket Components on January 7, 2022.

(3)

Each hypothetical Component Ratio equals the Initial Component Weight of the relevant Basket Component (as a percentage) multiplied by 100, and then divided by the closing level of that Basket Component on January 7, 2022 and rounded to eight decimal places.

Index =	Free float market capitalization of the index
	Adjusted base date market capitalization of the index

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sponsor, endorse, sell, or promote the notes;

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recommend that any person invest in the notes offered hereby or any other securities;

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have any responsibility or liability for or make any decisions about the timing, amount, or pricing of the notes;

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have any responsibility or liability for the administration, management, or marketing of the notes; or

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consider the needs of the notes or the holders of the notes in determining, composing, or calculating the SX5E, or have any obligation to do so.

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STOXX does not make any warranty, express or implied, and disclaims any and all warranty concerning:

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the results to be obtained by the notes, the holders of the notes or any other person in connection with the use of the SX5E and the data included in the SX5E;

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the accuracy or completeness of the SX5E and its data;

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the merchantability and the fitness for a particular purpose or use of the SX5E and its data;

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STOXX will have no liability for any errors, omissions, or interruptions in the SX5E or its data; and

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Under no circumstances will STOXX be liable for any lost profits or indirect, punitive, special, or consequential damages or losses, even if STOXX knows that they might occur.

	Type of Corporate Action		Adjustment		Adjustment to Divisor
	Issue of new shares		Share weighting increased		Yes
	Share repurchase		Share weighting decreased		Yes
	Bonus issued or stock split		Share weighting and share price adjusted according to the terms of the split		No

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Technology — Pharmaceuticals, Electrical Machinery, Automobiles, and Auto Parts, Precision Instruments, Telecommunications;

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Financials — Banks, Other Financial Services, Securities, Insurance;

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Consumer Goods — Fishery, Food, Retail, Services;

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Materials — Mining, Textiles & Apparel, Paper and Pulp, Chemicals, Petroleum, Rubber, Glass & Ceramics, Steel, Nonferrous Metals, Trading Companies;

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Capital Goods/Others — Construction, Machinery, Shipbuilding, Transportation Equipment, Other Manufacturing, Real Estate; and

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Transportation and Utilities — Railroads and Buses, Land Transport, Marine Transport, Air Transport, Electric Power, Gas.

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was first launched with a base level of 1,500 as of June 30, 1988; and

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average free-float market capitalization over the last 12 months (compared to the capitalization of the Swiss Performance Index, which serves as a benchmark for the overall Swiss equity market and as the index universe for the Swiss Market Index), and

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cumulative on order book turnover over the last 12 months (compared to the total turnover of the Swiss Performance Index).

Swiss Market  Index (SMI®)  =

Free Float Market Capitalization of the Swiss Market Index Divisor

	Event	Divisor Change?
	Regular cash dividend	No
	Share Split	No
	Rights Issue	If the rights issue is used to raise capital, the divisor increases.   If the rights issue is used to return capital, the divisor decreases.

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was first launched in 1979 by the Australian Securities Exchange and was acquired and re-launched by its current index sponsor on April 3, 2000; and

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is sponsored, calculated, published and disseminated by S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, a part of McGraw Hill Financial (“S&P”).

	Corporate Action		Treatment
	Company addition/deletion		Addition Companies are added at the float market capitalization weight. The net change to the index market capitalization causes a divisor adjustment. Deletion The weights of all stocks in the index will proportionally change. Relative weights will stay the same. The index divisor will change due to the net change in the index market capitalization.
	Change in shares outstanding		Increasing (decreasing) the shares outstanding increases (decreases) the market capitalization of the index. The change to the index market capitalization causes a divisor adjustment.
	Split/reverse split		Shares outstanding are adjusted by split ratio. The stock price is adjusted by the split ratio. There is no change to the index market capitalization and no divisor adjustment.
	Spin-off		The spin-off is added to the index on the ex-date at a price of zero. The spin-off index shares are based on the spin-off ratio. On the ex-date, the spin-off will have the same attributes as its parent company, and will remain in the index for at least one trading day. As a result, there will be no change to the index divisor on the ex-date. If the spin-off is ineligible for continued inclusion, it will be removed after the ex-date. The weight of the spin-off being deleted is reinvested across all the index components proportionally such that the relative weights of all index components are unchanged. The net change in index market capitalization will cause a divisor change.
	Change in IWF		Increasing (decreasing) the IWF increases (decreases) the market capitalization of the index. A net change to the index market capitalization causes a divisor adjustment.
	Ordinary dividend		When a company pays an ordinary cash dividend, the index does not make any adjustments to the price or shares of the stock. As a result, there are no divisor adjustments to the index.
	Special dividend		The stock price is adjusted by the amount of the dividend. The net change to the index market capitalization causes a divisor adjustment.
	Rights offering		All rights offerings that are in the money on the ex-date are applied under the assumption the rights are fully subscribed. The stock price is adjusted by the value of the rights and the shares outstanding are increased by the rights ratio. The net change in market capitalization causes a divisor adjustment.

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incorrect or revised closing price of one or more constituent securities;

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missed corporate event;

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incorrect application of corporate action or index methodology;

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late announcement of a corporate event; or

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incorrect calculation or data entry error.

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if an unexpected exchange closure occurs prior to the open of trading and it is indicated that trading will not open for a given day, S&P will treat the day as an unscheduled market holiday.

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if a market disruption occurs intraday, S&P will wait for the impacted exchange to publish a list of closing prices, which will then be used to calculate the closing index values. If no list is published, the last trade for each security before the interruption is used to calculate the index closing value. If no trades were reported for a security, the previous closing price, adjusted for corporate actions, is used for index calculation.

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The company is incorporated outside the PRC; and

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The company is listed on the HKSE; and

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Over 55 per cent of the revenue or assets of the company are derived from the PRC; and

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The actual controller of the company (if available) is a Chinese state entity; or

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The company is controlled by Chinese state entities, i.e. the government, provinces or municipalities, through strategic holdings which, in aggregate, total more than 30 per cent of its voting rights (when there is no actual controller reported).

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The company is incorporated outside the PRC; and

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The company is listed on the HKSE; and

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Over 55 per cent of the revenue or assets of the company are derived from the PRC; and

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The company is controlled by mainland Chinese companies or individuals and its establishment and origin are in mainland China.

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the investor’s spouse (including a domestic partner), siblings, parents, grandparents, spouse’s parents, children and grandchildren, but excluding accounts held by aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews or any other family relationship not directly above or below the individual investor;

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a family investment vehicle, including foundations, limited partnerships and personal holding companies, but only if the beneficial owners of the vehicle consist solely of the investor or members of the investor’s household as described above; and

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a trust where the grantors and/or beneficiaries of the trust consist solely of the investor or members of the investor’s household as described above; provided that, purchases of the notes by a trust generally cannot be aggregated together with any purchases made by a trustee’s personal account.

◾

There is no statutory, judicial, or administrative authority directly addressing the characterization of the notes.

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You agree with us (in the absence of a statutory, regulatory, administrative, or judicial ruling to the contrary) to characterize and treat the notes for all tax purposes as pre-paid cash-settled derivative contracts in respect of the Index.

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Under this characterization and tax treatment of the notes, a U.S. holder (as defined on page 42 of the prospectus) generally will recognize capital gain or loss upon the sale or maturity of the notes. This capital gain or loss generally will be long-term capital gain or loss if you held the notes for more than one year.

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No assurance can be given that the Internal Revenue Service or any court will agree with this characterization and tax treatment.