BMO's net income for 2010 highest in history of bank
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 1:42PM BMO is pursuing growth in Canada, expanding in US
In an address to the 193rd Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Bank of Montreal, Bill Downe, President and Chief Executive Officer, told his fellow shareholders that BMO sees tremendous opportunities ahead in North America.
"We're pursuing market share growth in every region of Canada," said Mr. Downe. "Over the past year, Canadian Personal and Commercial Banking has shown exceptionally strong performance. With 2010 revenues up 10 per cent and record net income for the year, P&C Canada is a market leader and a pacesetter for our entire enterprise. With BMO's P&C Canada business now so well positioned, expanding our home market to include the central U.S. is a natural next step."
Speaking about what the acquisition of Marshall & Illsley Corporation (M&I) will mean for shareholders, Mr. Downe said, "In the medium term, our aspiration is that our U.S. personal & commercial and wealth businesses will generate a billion dollars in earnings annually.
"We will grow personal and commercial banking through a network that will comprise some 900 BMO branches in Canada and 700 in the U.S. – an enviable footprint that will have a combined North American deposit base of over $160 billion.
"Banks have a unique institutional role to play in society. Banks provide the means by which economic growth can occur, and they help ensure the stability to sustain it. This is both an obligation and an opportunity. It's a role we at BMO don't take lightly," concluded Mr. Downe.
Reader Comments (1)
Great news! Despite having to pay off the M&I executives with those "golden parachutes", and still owing the U.S. taxpayers for TARP bailouts there should be some left profits over then, eh?
I worried that Wisconsin folks wouldn't be too keen on depositing their money in these banks to have it flow out of their state and even out of their country. But they were stupid enough to vote for "friend of banking", Gov. Scott Walker, so maybe they'll be dumb enough to hand over their savings to BOM.
Thank you BOM for bailing out M&I and it's leadership before they went belly up.