Bank of Montreal 2015 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 2015 Strategy in Context
The economic environment is constantly evolving. As we navigate through this constant change, we continue to remain grounded in our brand
promise. 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, providing us with consistent direction in the midst of evolving expectations, increasingly intense
competitive activity and continued market uncertainty. Digital technologies continue to play a critical role across our strategic priorities in enabling our
objectives. We believe that the strength of our business model, customer base, 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 revenues and
expenses to achieve our financial goals, and maintaining a prudent approach to risk management. We have made good progress on our enterprise
strategic priorities, with select accomplishments outlined below, as well as on our group strategies, detailed in the 2015 Operating Groups
Performance Review, which starts on page 45.
Our 2015 Priorities and Progress
1. Achieve industry-leading customer loyalty by delivering on our brand promise.
‰Developed further capabilities in digital banking and investing to help customers in new and innovative ways:
‰Launched Touch ID log-in in Canada and the United States, enabling customers to log in to the BMO mobile banking application using fingerprint
recognition. Within a month of the launch in Canada, approximately 115,000 new users registered for the mobile app.
‰Introduced Mobile Cash in the United States, allowing customers to withdraw money from a BMO Harris automated banking machine (ABM)
using their smartphone; we now have the largest network of mobile-enabled cardless ABMs in the United States.
‰Launched a new BMO Banking and InvestorLine portal, becoming the first major Canadian bank to provide customers with access to both
personal banking and self-directed investment accounts all in one place.
‰Enhanced our cash management offerings with the launch of BMO DepositEdge™in Canada, enabling business customers to deposit cheques
remotely, and BMO Spend Dynamics™, giving corporate card clients convenient access to their transaction data and the ability to analyze their
program spend.
‰For the third consecutive year, BMO was recognized by global financial services research firm Celent with a 2015 Model Bank Award for
excellence in the digital banking category.
‰Completed the successful launch of BMO’s refreshed brand with innovative tactics, including the “Help Given” social media campaign, which
generated over 7.7 million views in Canada and the United States, and sponsorship of The Amazing Race Canada, which allowed BMO to reach
millions of Canadians during its 12-week season.
‰Recognized with awards across our groups, including Best Wealth Management in Canada, 2015 (Global Banking and Finance Review), Best Full-
Service Investment Advisory in Canada, 2015 (Global Banking and Finance Review), 2015 Greenwich Quality Leader in Canadian Equity Sales and
Corporate Access and 2015 Greenwich Share Leader for Canadian Fixed Income Research (Greenwich Associates) and, for the sixth consecutive year,
World’s Best Metals & Mining Investment Bank (Global Finance).
2. Enhance productivity to drive performance and shareholder value.
‰Continued to make our processes more efficient, enabling front-line employees to add new customers and strengthen existing relationships:
‰In Canadian P&C, our automated leads management engine, which uses data to identify customer opportunities, has generated incremental
revenue by presenting customers with proactive needs-based product and service offers.
‰In U.S. P&C, launched a new Home Lending Loan Origination system with e-disclosures, online loan tracker and digital loan processing.
‰Across the business, improved online sales processes driving growth in sales volumes. Online retail banking sales volumes across Canada are
now equivalent to sales at over 100 branches.
‰Optimized our cost structure to deliver greater efficiencies:
‰Continued to roll out new branch formats offering smaller, more flexible and more cost-effective points of distribution across North America,
including the introduction of our Smart Branch format in the United States, which allows customers to conduct transactions with ABM video-
tellers and makes day-to-day banking easier and more convenient.
‰Continued to expand eStatements participation across North America, as more customers move to the paperless option.
‰Divested our retirement services and municipal bond trading businesses to increase focus on our core Wealth and Capital Markets businesses.
‰Improved data and analytical capabilities, which helped generate revenues and improved management of BMO’s expense base.
28 BMO Financial Group 198th Annual Report 2015