TORONTO, December 4, 2006 — BMO Financial Group (TSX, NYSE: BMO) today announced the completion of its acquisition of bcpbank Canada from BCP Internacional II, Sociedade Unipessoal, SGPS, Lda, a wholly owned subsidiary of Millennium bcp of Lisbon, Portugal. The acquisition was announced on August 3, 2006.
bcpbank Canada operates
a network of eight personal and commercial bank branches, seven of which
are located
in the Greater Toronto Area. bcpbank Canada has
a customer base of 28,000 and a well-established reputation for being the first
choice for financial services amongst Toronto’s extensive Portuguese-Canadian
community.
Established in 1817 as Bank of Montreal, BMO Financial Group is a highly diversified
North American financial services organization. With total assets of $320 billion
as at October 31, 2006, and 35,000 employees, BMO provides a broad range of
retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and solutions.
BMO Financial Group serves clients across Canada through its Canadian retail
arm, BMO Bank of Montreal and through its wealth management firms BMO Nesbitt
Burns, BMO InvestorLine and BMO Harris Private Banking. BMO Capital Markets,
our North American investment and corporate banking division, provides a full
suite of financial products and services to our North American and international
clients. In the United States, BMO serves clients through Chicago-based Harris,
an integrated financial services organization that provides more than one million
personal and business clients with banking, lending, investing, financial planning,
trust administration, portfolio management, family office and wealth transfer
services.
- 30 -
Michael
Edmonds,
Toronto, (416) 867-3996
Ron Monet, Montreal, (514) 877-1101
Investor Relations:
Viki Lazaris, Toronto, viki.lazaris@bmo.com,
(416) 867-6656
Krista White, Toronto, krista.white@bmo.com, (416) 867-7019