Bank of Montreal

one of the largest banks in Canada. Founded in 1817.

Until 1935 the Bank of Montreal combined issue functions with the functions of a commercial bank. It absorbed many banks. In 1958, together with Britain’s Bank of London and South America it organized the Bank of London and Montreal, which has more than 40 branches in a number of Latin American countries. In 1964 Barclay’s Bank obtained one-third of the shares of this bank. The Bank of Montreal is closely tied in personal union with English and American capital, large insurance companies, and large industrial companies which mine nonferrous metals, produce nickel and steel, drill for oil, and so on. The bank (in 1969) had over 1,000 branches in Canada, two in London, five in the USA, representatives in Paris, Düsseldorf, Milan, Mexico City, and Tokyo, and six field branches for serving Canadian forces in the Federal Republic of Germany. As of Nov. 1, 1969, the joint-stock capital of the bank consisted of $68 million (Canadian dollars), a reserve of $248 million, a balance of $8.2 billion, deposits of $7.5 billion, investments in government paper of $1.1 billion, other paper of $210 million, and loans of $4.5 billion.