BMO Financial Group put fresh operating metrics behind its AI program, saying that a new insurance underwriting platform can return decisions in seconds and that a frontline assistant is speeding up new hire productivity. 

BMO Insurance launched the SmartDecision platform in its fiscal third quarter ended July 31 that uses predictive modeling to deliver underwriting decisions in as little as 10 seconds, Chief Executive Darryl White said during today’s earnings call. The industry average is 28 days. 

The bank said AI-enabled credit evaluation has been scaled across 36,000 commercial banking clients in North America, improving underwriting speed by 35%, according to the its earnings presentation.

Additionally, the bank’s frontline chatbot, Lumi Assistant, is bringing productivity to employees, White said. It’s “simplifying access to policy information across Canadian personal and business banking, increasing productivity amongst new employees by 17%.” 

The $1.5 trillion bank is extending Lumi to support client conversations, starting with mortgage renewals this year, White said. 

The metrics follow the AI framework BMO laid out during its March investor day and were  built around:  

• Personalizing client experiences;  

• Augmenting employees; and  

• Automating processes. 

BY THE NUMBERS: In Q3, BMO reported; 

• Revenue of CA$9.9 billion ($7 billion), up 10% year over year; 

• Operating expense of $4.7 billion, up 31%, driven by restructuring of the bank and tech related expenses; and 

• Adjusted efficiency ratio of 54.9%, down 90 basis points YoY. 

Riding AI economy boom

BMO’s exposure to the AI buildout runs less through its own technology spend than through the sectors financing it, Chief Financial Officer of U.S. Operations Rahul Nalgirkar said during the earnings call. 

The bank’s capital markets franchise is concentrated in metals and mining, energy and infrastructure — the upstream inputs to data center construction — and it posted record pre-provision, pre-tax earnings of $645 million, up 39%, Nalgirkar said. The Montreal-based bank is also financing AI data center building. 

Trade policy is the offset variable. The U.S. imposed 50% tariffs on roughly 5% of goods imported from Canada, effective Aug. 22, and BMO flagged renegotiation of the United State-Mexico-Canada-Agreement as an additional risk. 

Canadian government hit back on Tuesday with retaliatory tariffs on about $20 billion worth of U.S. annual imports and rolled out aid for businesses and workers, matching Washington’s latest ‌duties dollar-for-dollar, according to Reuters reports. 

Chief Risk Officer Piyush Agrawal said on the earnings call that direct exposure to tariff-affected sectors makes up less than 1% of the loan book, much of it to investment-grade borrowers and that BMO does not view the tariffs as a broad-based credit event. 

Editor’s note: All figures have been converted to U.S. dollars. 

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