BMO aims to jump-start mortgage arm
Filed Under Main Content · Tagged: Bank Of Montreal, Bmo, Cash Earnings, Cheap Mortgages, Earnings Per Share, First Quarter, Globe And Mail, Growth Mode, High Interest Rates, Jump Start, Lost, Mail Bank, Market Share, Mortgage Business, Profits, Quarter Profit, Rivals, Savings Accounts
The Globe and Mail- Bank of Montreal is planning to kick its mortgage business back into growth mode, after another quarter in which it lost market share to rivals.
BMO reported a first-quarter profit of $657-million yesterday, up from $225-million a year ago, making it the third Canadian bank to consecutively top analysts expectations. Its cash earnings per share came in at $1.13, while the Street had been forecasting profit of about $1.03 per share.
The bulk of BMO’s earnings came from its Canadian lending operations, while profit from its U.S. lending business was 43 per cent lower than a year ago.
"We just had our sixth terrific quarter in a row," Frank Techar, the head of the bank’s Canadian lending arm, said in an interview.
Mr. Techar took over those struggling operations in July 2006, after a period in which the bank’s profits were suffering partially because of a strategy that sought to lure customers with cheap mortgages and high interest rates on savings accounts…
