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BMO Financial
Group Completes Purchase of Mercantile Bancorp, Inc.
TORONTO, December
30, 2004 - BMO Financial Group (TSX, NYSE: BMO) and its U.S. subsidiary,
Harris Bank, today announced the completion of the acquisitions of Mercantile
Bancorp, Inc. and Lake Commercial Corp.
Mercantile, based
in Hammond, Indiana, has 19 branch locations and provides Harris with
the opportunity to expand its community banking services into Northwest
Indiana. Lake Commercial Corp. is an entity established to develop potential
branch properties for Mercantile Bank. The acquisitions were announced
on October 13, 2004.
Note to Photo Editors:
To download a map showing Harris and Mercantile retail branch locations
as well as photos of two representative Mercantile branches, please visit
the following link: http://files.newswire.ca/180/MercandLandAcq.DOC
About Harris Bank
Harris Bank is one of the largest community banking networks in Illinois
and is part of Harris, an integrated financial service organization that
provides more than 1.5 million personal, business, corporate and institutional
clients with banking, lending, investing, financial planning, trust administration,
portfolio management, family office and wealth transfer services. For
more information, please visit www.theharris.com.
About BMO Financial Group
Established in 1817 as Bank of Montreal, BMO Financial Group is a highly
diversified financial services organization. With total assets of CDN$262
billion as at July 31, 2004 and more than 34,000 employees, BMO provides
a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking
products and solutions. BMO Financial Group serves clients across Canada
and in the United States through its Canadian retail arm BMO Bank of Montreal;
Chicago-based Harris; BMO Nesbitt Burns, one of Canada's leading full-service
investment firms; and Harris Nesbitt, its U.S. investment and corporate
banking operation.
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Contacts:
Media Relations
Ralph Marranca, Toronto,
(416) 867-3996
Lucie Gosselin, Montreal, (514) 877-1101
Jen Dillon, Chicago, (312) 461-6970
Investor Relations
Susan Payne, Toronto,
susan.payne@bmo.com, (416) 867-6656
Steven Bonin, Toronto, steven.bonin@bmo.com,
(416) 867-5452
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