News Releases
BMO Bank of Montreal has introduced a revamped and fully integrated online banking website that will make banking online simpler, easier and faster for all of its personal and business banking customers.
The bank’s website has been fully integrated so that customers are welcomed with a complete summary of all of their BMO financial holdings including Everyday Banking accounts, personal loans, mortgages, investments, Mosaik MasterCard, BMO Nesbitt Burns and BMO InvestorLine accounts, as soon as they sign in.
The redesigned online banking site will now be the customer entry point to all of BMO Bank of Montreal online services, allowing customers to locate everything - including all financial transactions, information on products, services and rates - all from one convenient menu system.
Additional links, two-tier navigation and customer-friendly language and tabs make navigation more intuitive. As well, BMO has enhanced functionality with such features as multiple bill payment capability from a single screen and relevant short cuts and tools linked to the page the customer is viewing.
Other enhancements include:
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Well placed secure customer service request forms such as mortgage, loan and credit card applications, at appropriate locations throughout the site
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Integration of investment information on the site
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Flashing 'customer service response waiting' icon
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Easier and faster ability to link accounts to customer bank card
Jackie Irvine, Senior Vice-President, Direct Banking, BMO Bank of Montreal, said that the redesign represents the culmination of extensive polling of the bank’s online clients who overwhelmingly expressed a preference for “substance over sizzle.”
“Flash is trash,” said Irvine. “There is a movement afoot online towards simplicity and back to basics. The dotcom, flashy site is out and the simple ‘get-it-done’ attitude is in,” she said. “Our customers clearly want a simple, easy to navigate site that gives them the information they want, the tools and advice they need, and the capability to do their banking or investing easily, quickly and securely.”
Irvine said that, as well as making the site easier to use, the bank responded to customers’ desire for enhanced functionality. “For example, most customers typically pay between two to five bills per month and are big users of the short-cut functions,” she said. “So we really paid attention to that kind of functionality and focused on enhancing those aspects of an online service that triggered acceptance and use,” said Irvine. “Our goal was to listen, learn and deliver a superior web site that was built for customers and not for bankers.”
According to Irvine, the results speak for themselves. “Our bill payment is the best in North America,” said Irvine, who bases her view on a review of ‘best practice’ banks in North America. “We have the best combination of fewest steps and the simplest process amongst our peers.”
“We had a good head start,” said Irvine. “BMO Investorline’s web site is a perennial winner in industry-wide user rankings so we began with some proven benchmarks.”
BMO online customers now have simple, easy and clear access to BMO through an integrated site that provides banking, borrowing, investing and insurance solutions that meet their personal and business financial needs.
BMO online banking services include savings, lending, and investing from BMO Bank of Montreal, plus BMO InvestorLine, BMO Nesbitt Burns wealth management account information and equity research, BMO Mutual Funds, BMO Harris Private Banking and Mosaik Mastercard. Services are available in English and French and a comprehensive reference glossary provides an extensive list of banking terms in Korean and Chinese language equivalents.
BMO Bank of Montreal is a member of BMO Financial Group, one of the largest financial services providers in North America. BMO Bank of Montreal provides a full range of everyday banking products and services through a network of full-service retail branches, telephone, internet and ABM channels across Canada.
BMO Financial Group serves clients across Canada and in the United States through its Canadian retail arm BMO Bank of Montreal, Chicago-based Harris Bank, a major U.S. mid-west financial services organization that also has wealth management offices across the United States, and through BMO Nesbitt Burns, one of Canada's leading full-service investment firms.
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