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Corporate Responsibility
  What's Inside
OUR APPROACH

Engaging our Stakeholders

By entering into dialogue with our customers, shareholders, employees and communities, we can better understand and respond to their needs and expectations – and we can more effectively convey our economic, social and environmental strategy and objectives. Whether through one-on-one conversations, focus groups and surveys or through membership in industry and community associations, engaging with our stakeholders creates opportunities for making our business better. It makes sense.

Quote
"As a responsible corporation, we take the time to listen to our various stakeholders and develop an understanding of how our activities impact them."
Ula Ubani
Director
Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability
BMO Financial Group

Our Progress

2007 Priorities 2008 Progress
Seek out opportunities to engage our stakeholders, including our customers, investors, employees and communities.
  • Meaningful engagement with our many stakeholders is how we do business every day at BMO.

Partner with national and international groups committed to furthering the cause of corporate responsibility.
  • On an ongoing basis, we consult with various outside agencies, including Canadian Business for Social Responsibility.

Partner to encourage dialogue on climate change issues.
  • We work with many stakeholders to advance our environmental practices and promote sustainability. BMO is a signatory to the Carbon Disclosure Project, the Equator Principlesand a partner in the United Nations Environment Programme – Finance Initiative.
  • BMO is a member of the Environmental Bankers Association.

Identifying Our Stakeholders


Our Customers

Our success is largely determined by how well we meet our customers’ expectations. When our customers told us they wanted less complexity and more help in making sense of their finances and realizing their financial goals, we not only listened, we acted. Whether they are planning to purchase their first home or business or saving for their retirement or their children’s education, we are helping more of them attain those goals by enhancing customer service. We are identifying and removing costly and unnecessary steps. And we are bringing a team approach to our customers, delivering integrated strategies that apply the full range of our expertise to their financial opportunities.

We continued to listen – and respond – to our customers in 2008. Based on talks with prospective and recent homebuyers, we introduced BMO First Home Essentials, a step-by-step guide for entering the real estate market. We also responded to the concerns of our small and medium-sized business clients regarding global economic uncertainty with a number of initiatives. These included creating business tools, resources, market offers and educational opportunities such as the BMO symposium for the Chinese business community, held at our Institute for Learning in Toronto last October. After the results of a BMO-commissioned Harris/Decima study revealed that the majority of small and medium-sized Canadian companies lacked a succession plan, we developed a nationwide campaign of free seminars on the topic (visit our succession planning website for more details). We also conducted a survey of Canadian post-secondary students to ensure we continue to be a leader in serving student and youth customers.

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Our Shareholders

At BMO, we believe that interaction with our shareholders, both retail and institutional, is extremely important. We foster ongoing dialogue with our investors, including meetings with our President and CEO, as well as leaders of our operating groups and senior management. We engage investors in one-on-one meetings, group meetings, investor presentations, quarterly earnings conference calls, our annual general meeting and ongoing correspondence. Regular dialogue with rating agencies and investment analysts is also critically important.

Our Employees

To attract and retain the talented, engaged and diverse workforce we need to best serve our customers and succeed as a business, we work hard to be an employer of choice. We provide a workplace in which all our people are encouraged to communicate their ideas, thoughts and concerns. Our Annual Employee Survey (AES), one of the most important ways we capture employee feedback, enables us to measure employee attitudes and opinions about workplace issues ranging from our human resources practices to our business strategy. In 2008, our AES employee engagement score remained notably high compared to other large industries surveyed, a clear affirmation that the voices of our people are being heard and welcomed. As part of our commitment to having a workforce that reflects the diversity of the communities where we work and do business, in 2008 BMO continued to actively partner with community and government agencies to recruit talented people from groups that are under-represented in our workforce. (For more details on our diversity initiatives, please see the Championing Employees section of 2008 Corporate Responsibility Report and Public Accountability Statement).

Our Communities

Interacting with, and investing in our communities is a long-standing tradition at BMO. By helping to make our communities resilient, healthy and welcoming, we act in the best interests of our customers and our business. In 2008, we contributed $55.9 million in donations, sponsorships and events to support charities and not-for-profit organizations in Canada and the United States. Our Corporate Donations Committee provides direction for our overall philanthropic activities and approves decisions about major contributions. Representatives from our regional offices also routinely engage with community members and groups, ensuring we have the opportunity to be involved in grassroots events and organizations in their communities. A great many BMO employees are also active participants in their communities. In 2008, through the national BMO Employee Charitable Foundation, our people raised an astonishing $8.7 million.

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Working Groups

Through our ongoing affiliation with global environmental organizations, such as the United Nations Environmental Programme, we continue to contribute to the discussion and use the knowledge we gain to enhance our own environmental management practices while promoting environmental sustainability globally.

BMO was the only Canadian bank to participate in the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative – Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Working Group. This multi-stakeholder group amended the GRI Financial Services Sector Supplement (FSSS) and created clear guidelines for the application of GRI indicators in the financial services industry. This will ensure that the GRI framework covers material sustainability issues for the sector.

We collaborated with some of our Canadian peers, Environment Canada and the informal Network on Linking Environmental Performance to Financial Value in the development of a research study examining the role of the financial services sector in protecting and conserving Canada’s boreal forest. We used this exercise to benchmark our policies and programs addressing the protection of biodiversity, ecologically sustainable forest management and indigenous peoples’rights against those of other financial institutions. As a result, we are working to provide additional guidance in our policies based on the possible effects of lending in the region.

Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs)

At BMO, we make it a priority to enhance our understanding of environmental issues. Examples of stakeholders that we engage with include:

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