News Releases

U.S. - Dollar Banking Features Tailored for More Than Just ‘Fairweather' Consumers

The annual return to Canada of millions of Canadian ‘Snowbirds' this spring won't dampen demand for U.S.-dollar-denominated bank accounts, credit cards, term investments and travel-related medical insurance. In fact, Sid Chopra, Director, Everyday Banking, BMO Bank of Montreal, says the appeal of U.S. dollar accounts, investments and services should remain high, independent of the seasonal ebbs and flows of Snowbird travel across the Canada / US border.

“There's no question our U.S.-dollar- and U.S.-travel-related services have a practical appeal to ‘Snowbirds' who spend a significant part of the year living in the United States,” said Mr. Chopra. “However, for reasons that go beyond the needs of our Snowbird customers, we've seen increasing interest in products and services designed to help our customers manage their everyday banking and financial needs in U.S. currency and from both sides of the border.”

Mr. Chopra said the bank offers its customers a variety of products and services geared to U.S.-destination visitors, including:

BMO Mosaik MasterCard – fees and transactions in U.S. dollars;
U.S. Dollar Premium Rate Savings Account;
U.S. Dollar Term Investments, with rates as high as 4.15% to 4.40% for deposits from $1,000 to $500,000 respectively;
U.S. Dollar Mutual Funds, including a monthly income fund that distributes $0.06 (U.S.$) per unit/per month;
Lending facilities that allow our commercial banking customers to access funds in both U.S. and Canadian currencies;
Free account access at any one of more than 500 Harris-branded automated banking machines in Illinois, Indiana, Arizona and Florida and at more than 1900 BMO Bank of Montreal ABMs throughout Canada, without paying a surcharge and network access fee and,
through BMO Harris Private Bank, client assistance with cross border tax planning, coordination of tax return preparation, coordination of travel medical insurance and bill payment services.

“Our message to customers in North America is, ‘Come in to one of our BMO Bank of Montreal or Harris Bank branches and let's have a conversation about how we can help you meet your financial needs and make your travel planning easier,'” said Mr. Chopra.

Established in 1817 as Bank of Montreal, BMO Financial Group is a highly diversified North American financial services organization. With total assets of $356 billion as at January 31, 2007, and more than 35,000 employees, BMO provides a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and solutions.

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