BMO InvestorLine, Bank of Montreal’s direct investing firm, has been ranked the best in the industry in Canada by GomezCanada, a financial services consulting firm.

GomezCanada’s annual scorecard ranked 13 Canadian direct brokerages. The scorecard assists consumers who want to conduct business on the Internet by helping them identify firms with the products and services that best meet their investing needs.

“We are very pleased that GomezCanada has acknowledged BMO InvestorLine’s strategy of bringing an expanded offering of guided investing tools to self-directed clients,” said Tom Flanagan, president and COO, BMO InvestorLine. “We anticipated investors would be looking for longer-term portfolio guidance and we have responded with a disciplined and sophisticated approach to meeting those needs.”

GomezCanada considered over 250 criteria in measuring Canada’s direct brokerages, including quality of investment research and services, website reliability and ease of use. Based on a poll of over 4,000 investors, the survey put emphasis on financial planning resources and tools available at Canada’s top online brokerages. BMO InvestorLine’s success was largely driven by its efforts to offer more than just stock selection tools and its focus on long-term financial planning, with innovations such as the Retirement Planner tool.

BMO InvestorLine was also ranked the “Best Online Brokerage” in Quicken.ca’s 2001 Online Brokerage Report in June 2001.

With the acquisition of New Jersey based direct brokerage CSFBdirect and its top-ranked online platform, BMO’s direct investing business will become the seventh largest in North America. It will provide valuable enhancements for BMO InvestorLine clients in Canada, in addition to expanding an integrated suite of products and services to wealth management clients in the United States.