News Releases

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - May 3, 2012) - As part of BMO Financial Group's ongoing commitment to financial literacy and 'Making Money Make Sense' for Canadians, BMO is releasing a financial tip every week in 2012.

BMO's Financial Tip of the Week: Set up mobile alerts to help manage household finances more effectively.

As reducing household debt continues to be top of mind for many Canadians, tools that help track day-to-day finances are becoming more important for those looking to manage spending and savings goals more effectively.

"Keeping your financial house in order, including managing spending and savings goals, is an ongoing priority for Canadian households," said Andrew Irvine, Senior Vice President, BMO Bank of Montreal. "Using a tool like BMO Alerts puts further understanding of personal finances into the pockets of our customers to help them stay on course in achieving their short and long-term financial goals - anytime, any place."

According to a recent BMO study, conducted by Leger Marketing, 33 per cent of Canadian households are living at or beyond their means, with 27 per cent living paycheque to paycheque.

Mr. Irvine added that BMO Alerts is a free, integrated mobile alerts service that is provided across all mobile platforms and delivered via multiple channels, including email, text message (SMS) and iPhone 'push' notification.

BMO Alerts allows customers to set-up personalized notifications, including:

• Account Balance - Receive notification if balance falls below amount specified by the user.
• Withdrawal - Keep track of money by receiving notification when a withdrawal is made that is greater than an amount specified by the user.
• Deposits - Notifies when a deposit is made that is greater than the amount specified.
• Debit Card Security - Immediately alerts the user if unusual activity is suspected on his or her BMO debit card.

BMO Alerts is part of BMO's ongoing commitment to 'Making Money Make Sense.' Since 2009, BMO has introduced various tools to help Canadians stay on top of their personal finances, including BMO SmartSteps, BMO SmartSteps for Business, BMO SmartSteps for Students, BMO SmartSteps for Investing, BMO SmartSteps for Parents, BMO SmartSteps for Homeowners and BMO MoneyLogic.

To learn more about BMO Alerts, please visit www.bmo.com.

To view the demo, click here.

About BMO Financial Group

Established in 1817 as Bank of Montreal, BMO Financial Group is a highly-diversified North American financial services organization. With total assets of $538 billion as at January 31, 2012, and more than 47,000 employees, BMO Financial Group provides a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and solutions.