Bank Of Montreal
Canada – a country built on the same foundation of freedom, equality, justice and prosperity, parallel to that of other First World Countries. Canada, today, is a mega-economy. And in a country where financial decisions are critical, individuals and corporate moguls alike depend only on the most trusted names in banking.
One of Canada’s trusted institutions is the Bank of Montreal. The Bank of Montreal is currently hailed as the 4th largest financial services provider in the whole Maple Leaf Country. Although categorized as a Domestic Chartered Bank, the Bank of Montreal has sizeable banking activities in Chicago and other key markets in the United States of America under the brand name Harris. The Bank of Montreal is Canada’s oldest with roots dating back to the year 1817. The bank is currently operated by the BMO Financial Group.
The Bank of Montreal or fondly called in the local market as BMO, read as bee – mo, is headquartered in Ontario and Toronto. As of 2004, the bank revenued a total of CAD $14.63, its number of employees to date is thirty four thousand.
The Bank of Montreal was established in Montreal on the 3rd of November, 1817 and was run by a former dry goods retailer, John Gray. It ran an office along St. Paul Streets. John Gray hired Robert Griffin as the bank teller. John Gray and Robert Griffin became the pioneers of the BMO legacy.
Gray and Griffin mounted the business principles that would serve as the company’s backbone code. The Bank of Montreal continued to flourish over the years. It was even called the central bank of Canada sometime in the early 1900s. The Bank of Canada opened in 1935 and the Bank of Montreal continued to grow. On the second half of the 20th century, the Bank of Montreal would become Canada’s first international financial services company. Being a pioneer in expanding outside the country, BMO now has over one thousand full service banking centers spread all over Canada.
Like many other banking giants in the world, the Bank of Montreal also has its share of mergers and acquisitions. The company is now a conglomerate of many banking histories. Among the companies that BMO purchased and merged with are the Commercial Bank of Canada in the year 1868, the Exchange Bank of Yarmouth in the year 1903, the Peoples Bank of Halifax in 1905, the Peoples Bank of New Brunswick in the year 1907, the Bank of British North America in 1918, the Merchants Bank of Canada in 1922 and the Molson Bank in 1925.
If not for the leaders of the company, BMO would not have become a mega bank in the Canadian market today. Credited are the important names that stirred the growth of BMO for the past one hundred ninety years. John Gray chaired the company from 1817 to 1820. He was followed by Richard Bladworth Angus from 1910 to 1913. H. Vincent Meredith indefinitely chaired board between 1914 and 1973. Between the years 1974 and 1987, William d. Mulholland was the Chairman of the Board. Matthew W. Barret took over until the 1990. F. Anthony Comper stayed for 17 years in the chairmanship. And just recently, Bill Downe joined the BMO team in March 1st, 2007.
A new corporate identity has been put to effect in the recent years. Today, its parent company markets the bank as BMO Bank of Montreal. Its business operations are quite interesting too. Instead of focusing on its business lines or markets, BMO Bank of Montreal groups its businesses according to client categories. This way, the bank can concentrate on product enrichment and customer relationship building.