(October 3 – 13:20 ET) – Bank of Montreal chairman and CEO Tony Comper was in New York today to promote the bank’s leadership in wireless financial services. Comper spoke at the the Jupiter Financial Services Forum
Comper cited BMO’s involvement with 724 Solutions Inc., and its leadership as first-in-market provider of wireless financial services in Canada and the U.S., as an example of how the bank has taken a first-mover approach to selected high-potential businesses.
“As of January there were 400 million (mobile phone) subscribers, increasing by 250,000 a day and heading toward one billion by about 2003,” Comper said. Analysts expect wireless ‘Net connections will surpass PC ‘Net connections by 2003, and eventually exceed PC connections by three to one. “We’ll be way ahead of the game that some of our competitors have not even begun to play, or even take seriously.”
Comper focused Veev, the bank’s wireless financial service launched in May 1999 in partnership with 724 Solutions. He said an attractive advantage of BMO’s wireless service is that it operates on an open technology standard and is able to connect to any Internet access device. He called the flexibility built into Veev a vital asset.
“If convenience is the key to success in attracting banking customers, the wireless channel is the most convenient channel yet devised,” Comper said.
Comper also drew attention to BMO’s full-service banking strengths in the United States. “Sixteen years after the purchase of Chicago-based Harris Bank,” Comper said, “Bank of Montreal remains the only one of the so-called Big Six Canadian banks with a full-service banking platform for U.S. expansion. With more U.S. assets than any of our Canadian competitors, we also have the largest personal and commercial customer base. What’s more, a full third of our net income is earned in the United States.”
-IE Staff