BMO to add 145 branches in California, Arizona

Dive Brief:

BMO plans to open 130 branches in California and 15 in Arizona over the next five years, the Canadian lender said Tuesday.
Seven locations in California, where the bank has roughly 220 branches, are set to open this year, BMO said in a news release. That includes three in greater Los Angeles, two in the San Francisco Bay Area and two in San Diego.
New locations in Arizona will be centered in the Phoenix and Tucson areas, said the bank, whose U.S. operations are based in Chicago.

Dive Insight:

BMO is betting on an expanded physical presence in what it deems “high-growth communities.” The bank has close to 1,000 U.S. branches, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data, although it’s offloading a portion of those in the Midwest, Great Plains and West.

In October, BMO said it would sell 138 branches to Raleigh, North Carolina-based First Citizens Bank. Those are located in North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota and Oregon. That transaction is set to close in mid-2026, subject to regulatory approvals.

At that time, BMO telegraphed its intention to open 150 locations in the U.S. over the next five years, saying new branch plans would be “California-centric” and focused on markets with the greatest potential for long-term growth.

The Canadian lender aims to “densify” its U.S. presence “where it has opportunity to achieve critical mass,” BMO said in October. The new branches are expected to support “hundreds of jobs,” the bank said.

“These financial centers provide our clients more opportunity to meet face to face with our teams to discuss their goals for their business and personal financial lives, build trusted relationships, and receive personalized guidance that helps them make real financial progress,” BMO U.S. President Aron Levine said in Tuesday’s release.

Levine joined BMO last year, after spending more than three decades at Bank of America. He leads BMO’s personal and business banking, commercial banking and wealth management businesses in the U.S.

Of the largest banks by total assets operating in the U.S., BMO sits at No. 17, as of the fourth quarter, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. BMO has about $283 billion in assets in the U.S., and $1.5 trillion in assets in total.

BMO’s U.S. presence expanded dramatically after it bought San Francisco-based Bank of the West from BNP Paribas. It’s pursuing further growth while its larger Canadian rival, TD, addresses anti-money laundering deficiencies at the direction of regulators, who capped TD’s U.S. retail bank assets at $434 billion.

TD had initially planned to open 150 U.S. branches by 2027, with a focus on the Southeast. But as the bank has worked through its AML issues, those plans have slowed and, instead, the bank’s U.S. footprint has shrunk.