TORONTO, Oct. 28, 2020
/CNW/ - Canada's main street
businesses employ a majority of Canadians but have traditionally
been underserved. As the country turns the corner on the COVID-19
pandemic, their rebound will influence Canada's overall recovery. To ensure these
critical businesses have the support they need, BMO has created a
dedicated banking team to provide guidance and advice to help
promote their growth.
This team will support businesses from coast to coast, with
relationship managers focused on helping clients in both major
urban centres as well as rural locations; it will continue to
invest in and develop technology and solutions built specifically
for the segment. This includes continued enhancement to digital
solutions such as BMO Business Xpress – a leading small business
onboarding platform – and a simpler and more streamlined approach
to serving the segment while tailoring industry specific solutions
for several key industries.
"As Canada's bank for business,
it has never been more important to stand behind Canadian
businesses – we need to ensure their economic success to ensure
Canada's success," said
Mike Bonner, Head Canadian Business
Banking, BMO Bank of Montreal.
"The challenge that we noticed is that this segment has been
underserved. We're looking to change that. We now have a team
focused solely on this segment to help them make real financial
progress. This is the beginning of a true partnership with
Canada's main street businesses
across the country."
The group will also work closely with partners in Retail,
Wealth, and Canadian Commercial Banking to support businesses in
this segment, with a full range of wealth and banking products and
services.
Broader Support for Small Businesses and Women
Entrepreneurs
As Canada's
bank for business, BMO has been advocating for additional measures
to help keep the small business environment favourable for those
operating in the sector. A key part of the effort is
hyper-targeting support to help businesses operating in sectors
that have been more negatively affected by the shutdown recover,
like hospitality and professional services.
As well, BMO recognizes that women entrepreneurs have been
particularly affected and require broader support to help them come
out stronger from the pandemic. As one measure to help, BMO
Celebrating Women has pledged $100,000 in grants to Canadian entrepreneurs.
This new grant program will award ten women-owned businesses with
$10,000 to put towards their
business.
BMO is also committed to building an inclusive society with zero
barriers and helping all small business owners achieve economic
success. The bank recently participated in an announcement with the
federal government, alongside other organizations, to partner on
the new Black Entrepreneurship Program. BMO also continues to
support the economic self-sufficiency and growth of Canada's Indigenous communities and has
committed to double the size of its Indigenous commercial loans,
deposits, and investments by 2025.
To find out more about how BMO is supporting small businesses,
visit: https://www.bmo.com/main/business/.
To access BMO's resource hub, visit:
https://www.bmo.com/main/business/small-business-resource-hub/.
About BMO Financial Group
Serving customers for
200 years and counting, BMO is a highly diversified financial
services provider - the 8th largest bank, by assets, in North
America. With total assets of $974 billion as
of July 31, 2020, and a team of diverse and highly engaged
employees, BMO provides a broad range of personal and commercial
banking, wealth management and investment banking products and
services to more than 12 million customers and conducts business
through three operating groups: Personal and Commercial Banking,
BMO Wealth Management and BMO Capital Markets.
SOURCE BMO Financial Group