BANK OF MONTREAL /CAN/

The Bank of Montreal, also known as the BMO Financial Group, is one of the five biggest banks in Canada, being the fourth largest in terms of market capitalization and assets. The bank was founded in 1817 as the first bank in Canada by a group of nine merchants. The bank would provide Canada’s first widely circulated current, playing an important role in the country’s development and becoming one of Canada’s most significant financial institutions. The bank would merge with the Commercial Bank of Canada in 1868 and establish branches in Newfoundland following the collapse of the Newfoundland Commercial Bank and Union Bank of Newfoundland in 1894. The Bank of Montreal’s expansion would be followed by a series of mergers in the early 1900s, including the Exchange Bank of Yarmouth, People’s Bank of Halifax, People’s Bank of New Brunswick, and the Bank of British North America, among other investment banking firms. In 1925, the Bank of Montreal would merge with the Molson Bank, moving its operational headquarters to First Canadian Place in Toronto in 1977. The Bank of Montreal would continue to expand through mergers, acquiring divisions of Nesbitt, Thomson and Company, Standard Chartered Bank of Canada, and the Royal Bank of Canada. Today the bank has total assets of approximately $633 billion and close to 50,000 employees. The Bank of Montreal provides a wide range of services and products for retail banking, wealth management, and investment banking to over 12 million clients. It has three operating groups to conduct its business: Personal and Commercial Banking, Wealth Management and BMO Capital Markets. Some of its more substantial subsidiaries include Harris Bank, one of the largest banks in the Midwest, and M&I, a diversified financial institution. Some of Bank of Montreal’s notable mutual funds include its Money Market Fund, Bond Fund, and Mortgage & Short-Term Income Fund and some of its notable ETFs include the Aggregate Bond Index, Federal Bond Index, and Dow Jones Industrial Average.