- Bank of Montreal (BMO -0.8%) made its biggest acquisition ever three years ago with the purchase of Milwaukee-based Marshall & Ilsley for $3.7B, a deal which doubled U.S. deposits and branches at what's now called BMO Harris Bank.
- "The accretion and cost savings have come in at or above their expectations," says KBW's Brian Klock. "They have the market share in Chicago that they want on the deposit side and it seems like they’re growing loans faster now.”
- "We’ve gone from rationalizing the business to now the business is growing again, and we expect the business to continue to grow,” said CEO William Downe following FQ3 results late last month.
- BMO earned 15% of its profit from U.S. operations this year, and its success comes alongside TD Bank which spent over $25B on U.S. purchases over the last decade and now gets over 25% of its profit here. Royal Bank of Canada, meanwhile, sold its money-losing North Carolina-based RBC Bank in 2012 after nearly eleven years.