Bank of Montreal 2014 Annual Report Download - page 17

MD&A
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
Enterprise-Wide Strategy
Our Vision
To be the bank that defines great customer experience.
Our Guiding Principle
We aim to deliver top-tier total shareholder return and balance our commitments to financial performance, our customers and employees, the
environment and the communities where we live and work.
Our Strategy in Context
Customers are redefining their expectations of the banking industry in real time. Amidst this change, we have evolved our brand position in the belief
that money is personal, and a bank should be, too. Grounded in our vision, We’re here to help is a simple statement meant to inspire and guide what
we do every day. We aim to help customers feel valued, understood and confident in the decisions they make.
Our strategic priorities have proven to be robust in the midst of evolving expectations, strong competitive activity and continued market
uncertainty. We believe that the strength of our business model, balance sheet, risk management framework and leadership team, along with the
advantages offered by the scale of our consolidated North American platform, will continue to generate sustainable growth and help us deliver on our
vision and brand promise.
Our commitment to stakeholders is evident in our focus on delivering an industry-leading customer experience, managing revenue and expenses
to achieve our financial goals, and maintaining a prudent approach to risk management. We are making good progress on our enterprise strategic
priorities, with select accomplishments outlined below, as well as on our group strategies, detailed in the 2014 Operating Groups Performance
Review, which starts on page 42.
Our Priorities and Progress
1. Achieve industry-leading customer loyalty by delivering on our
brand promise.
‰Developed capabilities in digital banking and investing to help
customers in new and innovative ways:
oRefreshed our public websites, bmo.com and bmoharris.com, with
a brand-aligned user interface and updated navigation, enabling
customers to get the help and information they need.
oEnhanced our Canadian mobile banking application with a simple
interface and new capabilities, including allowing customers to
send Interac®e-Transfers and book branch appointments any-
where, anytime. The updated application has been well received
by customers, and the number of mobile transactions has nearly
doubled over the past year.
oBecame the first Canadian bank to give customers the ability to
transfer money between Canadian and U.S. dollar accounts through
our Canadian mobile banking application.
oLaunched an integrated Personal Banking and InvestorLine tablet
application with enhanced functionality, allowing customers to
seamlessly access banking and investing services online through a
single secure channel.
oAdded automated banking machine (ABM) cheque image capture
capability at more than 500 ABMs in the United States.
oIn Illinois, launched BMO Harris Healthy CreditTM, an innovative
service offering that educates customers about their credit scores
when they open an account.
‰Sponsored a variety of financial education and home ownership
workshops throughout our U.S. market as part of the Federal Reserve
Bank’s Money Smart Week.
‰Across North America, sponsored the second annual Talk With Our
Kids About Money Day,offering tools and resources to raise financial
awareness among children.
‰Enhanced our customer loyalty measurement program to provide a
deeper understanding of loyalty drivers and more timely measure-
ment at both a full relationship and transaction level, allowing us to
continue improving our customers’ experience.
‰In Wealth Management, launched a new webpage designed to
educate and recruit women for investment advisory careers, making
BMO the first Canadian financial institution to offer a website focused
exclusively on educating women about opportunities within the
financial services industry.
‰Continued to develop new products designed to respond to clients’
emerging needs, including the launch of seven new exchange traded
funds (ETFs) this year. Assets under management in our ETF line of
business have grown to over $17 billion, a 45% increase over
last year.
‰Recognized with awards across our groups, including Best Wealth
Management in Canada, 2014 (Global Banking and Finance Review),
Best Private Bank in Canada, 2014 (World Finance Magazine and
Global Banking and Finance Review), Best Full-Service Investment
Advisory in Canada (Global Banking and Finance Review), 2014
Greenwich Quality Leader for Canadian Fixed Income Research, Cana-
dian Equity Sales, Canadian Equity Research and Analyst Service,
Canadian Mergers & Acquisitions and Canadian Equity Capital Markets
(Greenwich Associates) and World’s Best Metals & Mining Investment
Bank (Global Finance) for the fifth consecutive year.
2. Enhance productivity to drive performance and shareholder
value.
Although we did not have positive operating leverage this year,
we made significant progress on a range of productivity initiatives
as follows:
‰In Personal and Commercial Banking (P&C), we continued to make
improvements to our processes, enabling front-line employees to add
new customers and strengthen existing relationships:
oIn Canadian P&C, implemented a new commercial lending platform,
enabling consistent process execution and a better customer
experience. Also completed the migration of retail credit card
accounts to a better platform providing new functionality, including
enhanced risk management capabilities.
oIn U.S. P&C, enhanced training for our treasury sales force, which
resulted in productivity gains of 22% for commercial banking and
53% for business banking, compared to the prior year.
oIn Canadian P&C, our leads management engine continued to
provide our customers with relevant and timely offers and services,
increasing share of wallet and contributing to the personal banking
revenue growth achieved in 2014.
oIn Canadian P&C, expanded relationships with our customers and
streamlined organizational structures and processes, resulting in
continued strong volume growth and greater sales force productivity.
28 BMO Financial Group 197th Annual Report 2014