The Bank of Montreal was founded in 1817, and first opened its doors on Oct. 24, 1912 in a small frame structure across from the Lyric Theatre to serve a Swift Current population of 1,852. Sod was turned at BMO Financial Group’s current location next to the Lyric in 1990, and on Dec. 11 the public is invited to a celebration of 100 years of serving the community.
Since its founding, BMO Financial Group has played a significant role in projects key to the growth of Canada, including the construction of the first canals, telegraphs and railways, most notably Canadian Pacific’s transcontinental line. The Bank was also responsible for the first Canadian currency, which it issued from its founding until the Bank of Canada was created in 1935.
Today, BMO is proud to be the official “bank of soccer” in Canada, reflective of an era when “there were a lot of young Britishers among [bankers] and as a consequence, soccer was one of the main sports events of the town,” wrote branch manager J.G. Simpson in 1962, as part of a celebration of the bank’s 50th anniversary.
Currently BMO supports soccer from the grassroots level with more than 1000 youth teams nationally up to the professional level - with Canada’s men’s and women’s national teams, and our professional teams - Toronto FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC and the Montreal Impact.
“In celebrating our 100th anniversary, we want to acknowledge and thank our customers for their long standing support,” said Rebecca Sutherland, current manager of the Swift Current Branch of BMO Bank of Montreal. “We are proud to have contributed to the social and business life of Swift Current over the past 100 years and to have helped our customers achieve their financial goals. We look forward to helping the city celebrate its centenary next year!”
Refreshments, snacks and door prizes will be available beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 11.
BMO Financial Group is a highly-diversified North American financial services organization. With total assets of $525 billion as at April 30, 2012, and more than 46,000 employees, BMO Financial Group provides a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and solutions.
