News Releases

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - April 22, 2015) - Today, BMO reaffirms its commitment to its tagline "We're Here to Help" with the launch of BMO #HelpGiven / Arash's Day Off - a video showing how BMO employees helped small business owner, Arash, take a much-deserved day off.

To bring this experience to life, BMO enlisted a group of its employees in Toronto, Montreal, and Chicago to identify customers whom they felt could use some help. Sheila Ilanga, Assistant Branch Manager, Toronto, brought forward Arash, an ambitious small business owner struggling with chronic knee pain. Inspired by his work ethic, the team at BMO was determined to give him a break, and time to rest his injury from working extensive hours on his feet.

BMO devised a plan to take over Arash's deli for the day. BMO employees made and served sandwiches, and with the help of hundreds of BMO employees that came out for lunch, the deli enjoyed one of the busiest lunch rushes ever.

"Our internal mantra is that we're 'people first, bankers second,'" said Joanna Rotenberg, Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Strategy at BMO. "Our customers have told us that this is a point of difference for us; so we saw an opportunity to put our promise into practice and show how our employees really are here to help."

Cameras captured the emotional reaction from Arash, who arrived at work to find a line up of customers at his deli and BMO employees behind the counter. Arash was relieved of his duties for the day and was treated to some well-deserved downtime.

To watch the video, visit BMO #HelpGiven / Arash's Day Off and follow the conversation with the hashtag #HelpGiven.

About BMO Financial Group

Established in 1817 as Bank of Montreal, BMO Financial Group is a highly diversified financial services organization based in North America. The bank offers a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and services to more than 12 million customers. BMO Financial Group had total assets of approximately $672 billion and more than 46,000 employees at January 31, 2015.