Bank of Montreal 1998 Annual Report Download - page 19

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15
BANK OF MONTREAL GROUP OF COMPANIES
and through our chain of Pathways Financial
Growth Centres, where we help customers and
potential customers explore, define and resolve
their financial services needs in an interactive,
friendly environment.
We established four more investore centres
in 1998, along with our first investore Mobile, a
money management store on wheels. We also
established additional Pathways centres.
We arranged to bring face-to-face
banking
to people in parts of Canada that have never
had such access before. Following a suc
cessful
pilot project in Nain, Labrador, we signed
an
alliance agreement with Canada Post to
coop-
erate in 20 more banking outposts staffed by
specially trained Canada Post personnel.
In the U.S., Harris Bank increased and im-
proved customer access – and access to customers
– in a variety of ways, including expansion in
the Florida market. By converting the former
Harris Trust Company of Florida, with loca-
tions in West Palm Beach and Sarasota, into a
full-service bank, we now have a deeper pres-
ence in the fastest-growing state in the U.S.,
with special plans to serve “snowbirds” from
Canada and the U.S. Midwest.
EXPANDING ELECTRONIC ACCESS
On the electronic access front, mbanx increased
and improved customer access and substantially
grew its customer base to over 150,000 through
a number of strategic initiatives including the
launch of the “my view” service that enables
clients to custom-design their web sites accord-
ing to their individual needs and preferences.
We also continued to invest considerable
resources in the state-of-the-art technological
tools that enable employees to provide our elec-
tronic banking customers with a dramatically
new level of personal service.
These technologies, combined with mbanx’
value-based service, have led to visits from com-
panies all over the world that consider mbanx to
be best in class. I am also proud to report that
mbanx achieved a customer satisfaction rating
of 95% in 1998.
In order to improve our service to ABM
customers, we installed more than 560 new
InstaBank Extra®machines, which provide on-
line access to detailed statement information.
We added new functions to our MasterCard
web site, allowing cardholders to access secure
Internet web pages where, among other things,
they can check balances, review recent trans-
actions and request increases in their spend-
ing limits.
In addition, our digital commerce service
provider, Cebra Inc., formed a partnership with
Canada Post to create a secure Electronic Post
OfficeTM 2 that will enable Canadian businesses
and consumers to receive all types of mail elec-
tronically and pay bills over the Internet.
SERVING INVESTMENT AND
CORPORATE CUSTOMERS
We made significant progress in 1998 in improv
-
ing service to our investment and corporate
banking customers.
Last year saw the full-scale expansion of
our InvestorLine service hours. Customers are
now able to place trades, obtain real-time
quotes, and check on their accounts 24 hours a
day, 365 days a year. InvestorLine also launched
its Internet FundFinder
TM
service, which is
designed to attract more mutual fund holdings
to InvestorLine accounts.
We launched the Nesbitt Burns Quadrant
Program, a comprehensive pooled account pro-
gram that allows Nesbitt Burns investment
advisors to tailor portfolios to specific client
objectives and risk profiles.
We introduced the Nesbitt Burns Mutual
Fund Mosaic selection system, which helps in-
vestors determine the most appropriate mutual
fund and optimal asset mix to deliver the
anticipated return within acceptable risk levels.
We continued to improve electronic access
for our corporate customers thanks to the elec-
tronic launch of our Foreign Exchange transfer
and Canadian Treasury Money Market services.
The former allows the transfer of up to US$1 mil-
l
ion
between U.S. and Canadian dollar accounts;
To provide additional choices for
a well-diversified, managed approach
to investing, Nesbitt Burns introduced
the Quadrant and Mutual Fund
Mosaic Programs.
Harris expanded operations in
Florida and now offers full banking
services through branches in
Sarasota and West Palm Beach.