BMO Financial Group increased its technology spend in the third quarter as the bank invested in digital-first efforts and talent.
The Montreal-based bank reported a 3% year-over-year increase in tech spend to $2.9 billion, according to the bank’s earnings supplement. The bank’s total revenue for the quarter clocked in at $1.6 billion, down 11% from the same period last year.
The $839 billion bank attributed the increase in technology-related expenditures to “continued investment in the business, including in the sales force and in technology,” Tayfun Tuzun, chief financial officer at BMO, said during the Q3 earnings call.
As the bank increased its tech spend, it also invested in its “digital-first” initiatives, aimed at growing the number of users on its digital platforms, which resulted in a 5% YoY increase in the bank’s active digital users to 3.7 million users, according to the earnings presentation.
Meanwhile, BMO extended its partnership with the Black Professionals in Tech Network — a tech talent and career networking organization for Black professionals — and continued its path toward acquiring San Francisco-based Bank of the West. The bank made plans to start integrating Bank of the West’s technology in Q3 and expects to close the acquisition before the end of 2022, Chief Executive Darryl White said on the call.
Continuing tech investments
In addition to new acquisitions and extended partnerships, the bank had previously announced investments in both cloud-based risk management analytics, as well as a partnership with RPA provider UiPath for unattended bot implementations. Both investments made over the last six months were aimed at improving risk capabilities within the bank, Chief Risk Officer Patrick Cronin said on a previous earnings call.
“During the past two years, we have continued to strengthen our risk-management capabilities, including automated and data-driven risk mitigation and management processes in the face of macroeconomic and geopolitical risks,” Cronin said.
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