BCBusiness

November 2018 – What's Up, Chip?

With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.

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Created by BCBusiness in partnership with BMO 8th LARGEST BANK IN NORTH AMERICA $765B TOTAL ASSETS AS OF JULY 31, 2018 $10M in recent donations in B.C. & Yukon towards education, hospitals, health and research, arts and culture and civic and community services I T A L L A D D S U P position #1 in loan market share in B.C. in business banking 200 YEARS SERVING CUSTOMERS AND COUNTING Named BEST COMMERCIAL BANK in Canada for the fourth consecutive year by World Finance Named BEST Michael Wood, Senior Vice- President, Managing Director & Regional Manager, Western Canada, BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. Q: You've witnessed—and orchestrated —expansions in investment advisory and Žnancial planning businesses. How is this landscape changing? MW: There are •ve drivers of change: technological advancement; regulatory requirements; an aging demographic; increasing expectations of clients; and the competitive environment—the latter pertain- ing to the fact that we now compete with the likes of Google and Amazon. This is tremendously exciting because our resources have enabled us to adapt to these changes. As a result, what we o‡er clients is substantially di‡erent from the old days when typically the focus would be on build- ing investment portfolios. Speci•cally, as fully integrated investment advisors, we provide a one-stop shop for our clients for all their •nancial a‡airs, whether it be credit needs, insurance or estate planning. We're making it easy for clients to do business with us in the way they want to do business. Jamie Rogers, Managing Director, Head Investment & Corporate Banking, BMO Capital Markets Corp. Q: Capital sourcing is so global now—what do clients need to be mindful of ? JR: There is no doubt that access to capital has become much more global in nature for our clients. With such an increasing reach and speed at which capital is able to move comes more volatility and our clients are increasingly looking at ways to mitigate the risk to, and impact on, their strategic growth plans. As well, they are looking to manage their own capital structures e‡ectively and—more importantly—to rely more than ever on their banking and capi- tal markets partners to operate eŠciently and successfully navigate ever-evolving global capital markets. ‹ Andrew Hung, Head, Corporate Finance, B.C. Division, BMO Corporate Finance Division Q: What are the challenges you face in such a competitive market? AH: For me, the key opportunity is to make banking simple so our clients can focus on building their business, accelerating their plans and ultimately be- ing successful. In B.C., businesses are not always linear and many have needs that cover a wide spectrum from everyday operations, growth capital, real estate and international trade. With that in mind, our group repre- sents 13 lines of businesses presented to the market as a uni•ed platform, where we put the customer at the centre of every- thing we do. One thing to note: as a North American bank with full cross-border capabilities to the U.S., my team can sup- port our customers into the U.S. and open up new markets. All this can't be achieved overnight, so we do take the long view in our relationships with the aim to grow and support our clients over time. BMO has been around since 1817 and has been an integral part of Canada's history—it financed the Canadian Pacific Railway and is Canada's first bank. The future for BMO, its dynamic leadership team and 45,000 employees across Canada and the U.S. looks bright as the bank continues to evolve and meet new opportunities to give customers the products, services and advice they need to meet and exceed their financial goals. They started this and it's clear by their intensity that they're here to stay

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