BMO Financial Group has received all required regulatory approvals to complete its acquisition of Bank of the West from BNP Paribas and expects the acquisition to close on Feb. 1, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
“We are excited to be bringing BMO and Bank of the West together to continue building a leading North American bank with a shared focus on progress for our customers, employees, communities and the planet,” Darryl White, CEO of BMO Financial Group, said.
“We’ve been providing banking services to BMO customers for over 200 years, helping them make real financial progress, expand their businesses and drive economic growth. We look forward to working with communities across our expanded U.S. footprint to help drive meaningful change at the local level through a strong combination of financial and community-driven investment,” David Casper, U.S. CEO for BMO Financial Group, said.
“I would like to warmly thank Bank of the West and BNP Paribas teams who have been working closely with BMO Financial Group these last months in order to prepare the closing of the transaction and the transition to BMO Financial Group,” Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, group director and CEO of BNP Paribas, said.
Upon closing, BMO will add nearly 1.8 million commercial, retail, wealth management and business banking customers and provide access to more than 1,000 U.S. branches in 32 states and more than 42,000 ATMs. BMO will also add more than 9,300 Bank of the West employees.
After closing and until conversion of the combined banks’ systems, which is expected to occur in early September, customers will continue to receive service through their respective Bank of the West and BMO branches, websites and mobile applications. BMO will provide Bank of the West customers with key information about how the combined bank will serve them, including the plan for the conversion of their accounts.
In addition, BMO Financial Group plans to appoint two new members of the board of directors of its U.S. holding company, BMO Financial Corp., effective as of closing. The two new members will be Nandita Bakhshi and Claudia Fan Munce. Bakhshi is currently a director of BancWest Holding and Bank of the West. Bakhshi is also currently president and CEO of Bank of the West and co-CEO and a director of BNP Paribas USA. Fan Munce is currently a director of Bank of the West after retiring in 2016 following a 30-year career at IBM as the managing director of the IBM Venture Capital Group and vice president of IBM Corporate Development.
“We look forward to welcoming these two exceptional leaders to our board of directors,” John Rau, chair of the board at BMO Financial Corp., said.
