(April 2 – 15:00 ET) – The Canadian online brokerage market, although younger and smaller than its counterpart in the United States , is showing the same signs of expansion and an overall rise in adoption rates. That finding is contained in a newly released report by Boston e-commerce consultancy firm Celent Communications.

A second report indicates the current industry leader in full-service online brokerage in Canada, is Bank of Montreal’s BMO Nesbitt Burns.

The first study, “Canadian Online Brokerage: A Market Comes of Age,” indicates that Canada’s online investment community, while somewhat buffeted by recent market volatility, still continues to grow in terms of accounts and assets. Many brokerage firms reported much greater than expected growth in 2000 and are preparing for continued growth in 2001.

Additionally, the rise of the mainstream investor segment in Canada provides increased opportunity for those firms willing and able to evolve their service to offer more robust research, analytical tools and advice. The full service firms, now just making a foray into the online market, will find themselves in position to attract large numbers of these mainstream investors.

According to Fritz McCormick of Celent, “Discount firms will have to fight to keep their existing accounts and will also have to strive to evolve and meet the needs of the increasingly savvy Canadian retail investment community. Those firms without the ability or willingness to add new products and services will quickly fall prey to their competition, and some degree of consolidation is very likely in the next year.”

Along with Celent’s report looking at the overall Canadian online brokerage market, a separate study, “BMO Nesbitt Burns: Leading the Full-Service Online Brokerage Charge in Canada,” was also released.

According to the report, BMO Nesbitt Burns is the leading full-service online investment firm in Canada. This case study shows the timeline of BMO Nesbitt Burns Full- Service Online Internet delivery project, the targeted clients, fees and pricing, as well as a discussion of the firm’s technology choices.

“The North American online brokerage market continues to evolve into the full service e-brokerage phase,” said McCormick. “We believe that BMO Nesbitt Burns’ multi-channel, fee-based online brokerage offering will capture a significant share of the Canadian market.”