TORONTO and CHICAGO, Jan. 17,
2023 /PRNewswire/ - BMO Financial Group (TSX: BMO)
(NYSE: BMO), and its subsidiaries BMO Financial Corp. and BMO
Harris Bank N.A. (together, "BMO"), today announced it has received
all regulatory approvals required to complete its acquisition of
Bank of the West from BNP Paribas (XPAR: BNP). BMO anticipates the
acquisition will close on February 1,
2023, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing
conditions.
"We are excited to be bringing BMO and Bank of the West together
to continue building a leading North American bank with a shared
focus on progress for our customers, employees, communities and the
planet," said Darryl White, CEO, BMO
Financial Group.
"We've been providing banking services to BMO customers for over
200 years, helping them make real financial progress, expand their
businesses and drive economic growth. We look forward to working
with communities across our expanded U.S. footprint to help drive
meaningful change at the local level through a strong combination
of financial and community-driven investment," said David Casper, U.S. CEO, BMO Financial Group.
Upon closing, BMO will welcome the nearly 1.8 million
commercial, retail, wealth management and business banking
customers and provide increased convenience with access to over
1,000 U.S. branches in 32 states and nationwide fee-free access to
over 42,000 ATMs. BMO also looks forward to over 9,300 Bank of the
West employees joining the BMO family.
After closing and until conversion of the combined banks'
systems, expected in early September
2023, customers will continue to receive service through
their respective Bank of the West and BMO branches, websites and
mobile applications. BMO will provide Bank of the West customers
with key information about how the combined bank will serve them,
including the plan for the conversion of their accounts.
In addition, BMO Financial Group announced that two new leaders
are expected to be appointed to the Board of Directors of BMO's
U.S. holding company, BMO Financial Corp., effective as of
closing:
- Nandita Bakhshi,
currently Director of BancWest Holding Inc. and of Bank of the
West. Ms. Bakhshi is also currently President and Chief Executive
Officer of Bank of the West and co-Chief Executive Officer and a
Director of BNP Paribas USA, Inc.
She also serves on the Board of Directors of Grameen America; the
Supervisory Board of The Clearing House; The U.S. India Strategic
Partnership Forum (USISPF); and the Council on Foreign Relations
(CFR). Ms. Bakhshi has devoted her career to inclusive,
transformational and forward-looking leadership with a particular
emphasis on placing women in leadership roles. Ms. Bakhshi will
also be appointed Special Advisor on Integration to BMO's Senior
Leadership team upon closing.
- Claudia Fan Munce,
currently Director of Bank of the West. Ms. Munce retired in 2016
from a distinguished 30-year career at IBM as the Managing Director
of the IBM Venture Capital Group and Vice President of IBM
Corporate Development. Ms. Munce is a venture advisor at New
Enterprise Associates (NEA), sits on the Board of Directors of Best
Buy Corporation and Arteris I.P. and is an appointed faculty member
at Stanford University Graduate School
of Business.
"We look forward to welcoming these two exceptional leaders to
our Board of Directors," said John
Rau, Chair of the Board, BMO Financial Corp.
A link detailing the composition of the full BMO Financial Corp.
Board of Directors can be found
here: https://www.bmoharris.com/us/about/corporate-information/board-of-directors.
BMO Financial Corp. is the U.S. holding company for BMO Harris
Bank N.A. The Board of Directors of BMO Financial Corp. provides
governance and oversight for the bank, as well as for BMO Capital
Markets and BMO Private Bank. BMO Financial Corp. is a wholly owned
subsidiary of Bank of Montreal and
is BMO's top tier holding company in the U.S.
About BMO Financial Group
Serving customers for 200
years and counting, BMO is a highly diversified financial
services provider - the 8th largest bank, by assets,
in North America. With total assets of C$1.14
trillion as of October 31, 2022, and a team of diverse
and highly engaged employees, BMO provides a broad range of
personal and commercial banking, wealth management and investment
banking products and services to 12 million customers and conducts
business through three operating groups: Personal and Commercial
Banking, BMO Wealth Management and BMO Capital Markets.
Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking
information
Certain statements in this press release are
forward-looking statements. All such statements are made pursuant
to the "safe harbor" provisions of, and are intended to be
forward-looking statements under, the United States Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and any applicable
Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements in this
press release may include, but are not limited to, statements with
respect to the expected closing of the proposed transaction, BMO's
plans for the combined operations of BMO and Bank of the West and
the financial, operational and capital impacts of the transaction,
and include statements made by our management. Forward-looking
statements are typically identified by words such as "will",
"would", "should", "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "project",
"intend", "estimate", "plan", "goal", "commit", "target", "may",
"might", "schedule", "forecast" and "could" or negative or
grammatical variations thereof.
By their nature, forward-looking statements require us to make
assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties,
both general and specific in nature. There is significant risk that
predictions, forecasts, conclusions or projections will not prove
to be accurate, that our assumptions may not be correct, and that
actual results may differ materially from such predictions,
forecasts, conclusions or projections. We caution readers of this
press release not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking
statements, as a number of factors – many of which are beyond our
control and the effects of which can be difficult to predict –
could cause actual future results, conditions, actions or events to
differ materially from the targets, expectations, estimates or
intentions expressed in the forward-looking statements.
The future outcomes that relate to forward-looking statements
may be influenced by many factors, including, but not limited to:
the possibility that the proposed transaction does not close when
expected or at all because conditions to closing are not satisfied
on a timely basis or at all or are received subject to adverse
conditions or requirements; the anticipated benefits from the
proposed transaction, such as it growing our U.S. operations are
not realized in the time frame anticipated or at all as a result of
changes in general economic and market conditions, interest and
exchange rates, monetary policy, laws and regulations (including
changes to capital requirements) and their enforcement, and the
degree of competition in the geographic and business areas in which
Bank of the West currently operates; the business of Bank of the
West may not perform as expected or in a manner consistent with
historical performance; the ability to promptly and effectively
integrate Bank of the West; diversion of management time on
transaction-related issues; increased exposure to exchange rate
fluctuations; and those other factors discussed in the Risks That
May Affect Future Results section, and the sections related to
credit and counterparty, market, insurance, liquidity and funding,
operational non-financial, legal and regulatory, strategic,
environmental and social, and reputation risk, in the
Enterprise-Wide Risk Management section of the BMO 2022 Annual
Report, all of which outline certain key factors and risks that may
affect our future results and our ability to anticipate and
effectively manage risks arising from all of the foregoing factors.
We caution that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of all
possible factors. Other factors and risks could adversely affect
our results. Investors and others should carefully consider these
factors and risks, as well as other uncertainties and potential
events, and the inherent uncertainty of forward-looking
statements.
We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statements,
whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by the
organization or on its behalf, except as required by law. The
forward-looking information contained in this press release is
presented for the purpose of assisting shareholders and analysts in
understanding the proposed transaction and may not be appropriate
for other purposes.
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SOURCE BMO Financial Group