Ensuring Accessibility

We are committed to ensuring that all our customers have access to our products and services. This begins with providing barrier-free access at our branches across the country. Today, 91% of our Canadian branches provide level or ramped entries to accommodate customers with disabilities. Many of our branches also offer wheelchair-height seating arrangements at service counters. As a result of a major upgrade of our ABM network, our new ABM platform offers improved accessibility. The ABMs’ height has been lowered and, where possible, they provide front accessibility for wheelchair users.

To assist customers with low vision, our ABMs also have screens with contrasting bright colours to make instructions easier to read, pulsing light bars that direct users to the card slot and envelope depository, and large-character keypads. In addition, BMO Bank of Montreal offers fully personalized large-print cheques with perforated guidelines as well as statements in Braille.

Through our Employee Affinity group, Waves, for our deaf, deafened and hard of hearing colleagues, we receive counsel on best practices for serving members of their community. Thanks to their recommendations, our BMO Bank of Montreal Direct Banking Client Service Centre is equipped with a teletypewriter (TTY/TTD) which allows our clients who are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing to have all of their banking needs met through one single point of contact.

Back to top

Safeguarding Privacy

Building a foundation of trust with our stakeholders requires that we respect and protect the privacy and confidentiality of the personal information of our customers and employees.

BMO has a Chief Privacy Officer, whose mandate is the safeguarding of personal information and who is accountable for our privacy policy, complaint resolution, education and communication activities. The Chief Privacy Officer also manages the Privacy Office, a team of employees responsible and accountable for our organization’s compliance with privacy legislation. This team is also responsible for providing advice, expertise, education, support, and monitoring and reporting to executive management and the Board of Directors.

During 2008, BMO completed several key initiatives related to privacy. The Privacy Office, together with our Information Management and Information Security departments, completed the second phase of an enterprise-wide employee learning program to increase awareness of the proper handling of personal and confidential information.

BMO also worked closely with industry groups and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on implementing the National Do Not Call List and telemarketing rules. This ensures that consumers have choice and control over the use of their personal information for telemarketing purposes.

In addition, BMO collaborated with industry groups and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada in providing input for the review of The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, designed for the protection of personal information in the private sector.

To help ensure that we respect and protect the personal information of our customers and employees and maintain the trust of all of our stakeholders, we monitor our practices for protecting personal information and make adjustments to existing controls as necessary. This is critical given the ever-changing technological and operational environment.

While we strive to maintain effective controls to protect personal information, incidents may still occur. We maintain processes that help us quickly and appropriately respond to any privacy complaints or incidents to minimize the impact of these situations.

Back to top

Resolving Customer Complaints

Our complaint resolution process is part of our commitment to not only serving our customers responsibly but also acting as our customers’ advocate. Managing complaints effectively is essential to retaining our customers.

BMO provides a single reference document for customers who want to resolve a complaint. The brochure, called We Can Help – Resolving Customer Complaints, was designed to help our Canadian customers find the BMO team able to assist when a problem arises. It lists the complaint resolution process for all of our Canadian operating groups and includes contact information for our Ombudsman, the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, regulators and provincial securities commissions. It also lists the financial services industry’s Voluntary Commitments and Codes of Conduct that BMO agrees to follow.

If a dispute cannot be resolved satisfactorily either by branch staff or through internal executive levels, a customer may appeal to The Office of the Ombudsman. As an advocate for fairness, the Ombudsman does not take sides and addresses problems or concerns in an unbiased and impartial manner. Every member of the Office of the Ombudsman is dedicated solely to resolving customer concerns and is not involved in our day-to-day operations.

If a customer is not satisfied with our decision on a complaint, it is his or her right to contact the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments for an impartial and informal review. The Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments is not a regulator, and doesn’t advocate for consumers or the industry. Services from the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments are free to consumers.

Back to top