Bank of Montreal
From MarketsWiki
| Bank of Montreal (BMO Financial Group) | |
| |
| Founded | 1817 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Montreal, QC |
| Key People | President and CEO William A. (Bill) Downe |
| Web site | http://www2.bmo.com |
Bank of Montreal, approaching its 200th birthday, is the flagship institution of parent company BMO Financial Group, which has significant holding beyond Canada. Like most larger banks globally, Bank of Montreal suffered significant losses in the 2007 credit market meltdown.
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Contents |
History
Bank of Montreal (BofM) was founded in 1817 and helped finance the Transcontinental Railway in the 1880s. It served as the country's central bank until 1935.[1] Parent company BMO has since made several acquisitions, most notably Chicago-based Harris Bank in 1984, but was prevented by the Canadian government from acquiring top-five competitor Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) in 1998.
RBC today is Canada's largest bank by 2007 revenue with C$26.277 billion compared to fourth-ranked BofM with C$15.838 million.[2] BofM is still reeling from a C$680 writedown it was forced to take in the first quarter of 2007 after a "rogue trader" on its energy desk racked up unaccounted losses with an outside broker.[3]
Latest News
BMO stock took a hammering in February 2008 after it announced efforts to avert a massive C$495 million writedown of the bank's corporate-bond funds after taking an earlier C$210 million charge.[4] BMO Financial Group then revealed in March 2008[5] that it had taken a C$362 million charge for the first quarter, pushing net income down 27 percent ($93 million) on a year earlier to C$255 million. First-quarter earnings per share (EPS) fell 30 percent (C$0.20) year-on-year to C$0.47.
Key People
President and CEO Bill Downe was promoted from chief operating officer in March 2007 after more than 20 years with the company.[6] He received criticism in 2007 over the energy trader scandal for not doing enough as COO to prevent it.
References
- ↑ Bank of Montreal Quick Facts. CanadaBanks.net. Retrieved on May 20, 2008.
- ↑ Company Information: Bank of Montreal. FPinfomart.ca. Retrieved on May 20, 2008.
- ↑ Bill Downe Still Hasn't Resigned at Bank of Montreal. Portfolio. Retrieved on May 20, 2008.
- ↑ Bank of Montreal in Talks to Avert Trust Writedown. Bloomberg. Retrieved on May 20, 2008.
- ↑ BMO Financial Group Reports First Quarter Results. BMO. Retrieved on May 20, 2008.
- ↑ 3552,00.html#Downe Corporate Governance - Board of Directors. BMO. Retrieved on May 20, 2008.
