National | January 18, 2023

BMO Gets Regulatory Clearance for Bank of the West Acquisition

BMO Financial Group has received all regulatory approvals required to complete its acquisition of Bank of the West from BNP Paribas. BMO anticipates the $16.3-billion acquisition, first announced in December 2021, will close on Feb. 1.

“We’ve been providing banking services to BMO customers for over 200 years, helping them make real financial progress, expand their businesses and drive economic growth,” said David Casper, U.S. CEO, BMO Financial Group. “We look forward to working with communities across our expanded U.S. footprint to help drive meaningful change at the local level through a strong combination of financial and community-driven investment.”

Upon closing, BMO will welcome Bank of the West’s nearly 1.8 million commercial, retail, wealth management and business banking customers and provide increased convenience with access to more than 1,000 U.S. branches in 32 states and nationwide fee-free access to over 42,000 ATMs. BMO awill also add more than 9,300 Bank of the West employees to its workforce.

After closing and until conversion of the combined banks’ systems, expected to occur in early September, customers will continue to receive service through their respective Bank of the West and BMO branches, websites and mobile applications.

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About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 13-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 15-20 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).