BMO first quarter net income up 18% to C$776m

Bank of Montreal (BMO)
has posted a net income of C$776m ($798.2m) for the three months to
31 January, an 18% increase from the corresponding quarter a year
ago.

Net income at BMO’s
retail focused personal and commercial (P&C) banking unit in
Canada increased by 10% to C$444m ($455m) in the first
quarter.

But first quarter net
income at the P&C unit in the US declined by 13% to
$42m.

At group level, first
quarter net interest income increased by 6.2% to C$1.63bn;
provisions for credit losses fell by 25.5% to C$248m.

Non-interest revenue
increased by 15.1% to C$1.72bn.

Total revenue increased
by 10.6% year-on-year (y-o-y) to C$3.35bn.

Canada-based P&C
first quarter highlights included:

• Revenue increased by 8.2% to C$1.53bn;
  personal banking revenue was up 6.5% to C$955m while commercial
  banking revenue rose 10.6% to C$573m;
• An increase of 5 basis points in the net
  interest margin to 3.0%, and
• BMO’s retail lending market share
  increased from 10.1% to 10.2%.

Less positive metrics at
the unit included a 20 basis point increase in the cost-income
ratio to 50.5%.

BMO lost market share in
the first quarter in the retail cards sector: down from 13.2% a
year ago to 13.1%.

BMO’s market share of
personal deposits fell by 50 basis points y-o-y from 12.2% to
11.7%; its mutual funds market share fell by 10 basis points to
13.4%.

BMO ended the first
quarter with a branch network of 908 outlets in Canada (a net
increase of 6 units y-o-y) and 319 branches in the US (a net
increase of 31).

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