BMO posts 12.5% rise in H1 net profit

Bank of Montreal (BMO)
has posted an interim net income of C$1.58bn ($1.61bn) for the six
months to 30 April, an increase of 12.5% from the same period last
year.

BMO’s retail focused
Personal & Commercial (P&C) unit in Canada posted a first
half net income of C$845m, up 5.9% but the P&C unit in the US
reported a 13.4% fall in net income year-on-year to
C$84m.

Second quarter retail
highlights at BMO included the introduction of free coin-counting
machines in Canada  in new and renovated branches across
Canada and the launch in April of BMO Mobile Banking.

In the second quarter,
net income inched up by 1.7% at the P&C Canadian unit to
$401m.

Bill Downe, president
and CEO BMO Financial Group said:

 “We continue to
see the benefit from investments in customer experience
contributing to top-line growth and customer loyalty. We are
encouraged by the generally improving trend we are seeing with
respect to loan losses and our rising return on equity, which
reached 16.7% in the quarter on a very strong capital
base.

BMO’s cost-income ratio
increased by 160 basis points in the first half to
62.0%.

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