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Subject: Excerpt Of History
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2004 08:34:37 EST
Bank of Montreal
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bankofmontreal.png)
The Bank of Montreal is Canada's oldest chartered bank. It opened in
Montreal, Quebec on November 2, 1817. It served as Canada's central bank until the
creation of the Bank of Canada in 1935. It played a major role in the
development of the country, taking part in the financing of the first
transcontinental railway in the 1880s. The first Canadian bank to open a branch abroad, the
Bank of Montreal is today a major international bank with 1,100 branches
across Canada and around the world.
Through its history, it has merged with several other Canadian banks:
Commercial Bank of Canada (1868), Exchange Bank of Yarmouth (1903), People’s Bank
of Halifax (1905), People’s Bank of New Brunswick (1907), Bank of British
North America (1918), Merchants Bank of Canada (1922), and the Molson Bank
(1925).
The bank's stock is listed on both the Toronto and New York stock exchanges
under the symbol BMO.
In 1984 the bank greatly expanded its operations in the United States by
purchasing Chicago's Harris Bankcorp.
In 1998 the Bank of Montreal shocked the Canadian financial community by
announcing plans to merge with the Royal Bank of Canada. The plans were later
blocked by the Canadian government.
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