Bank of Montreal Profit Rises 16%

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Bank of Montreal (BMO) has releases its latest quarterly report and it has been said that their latest quarterly profit has risen 16% from the year earlier levels as revenue increased, provisions for loan losses reduced and its Canadian operations have showed strong profit growth.

BMO is the first of Canada’s big banks to report its fourth quarter and year end results for 2009, and it has reported an overall net income of $647 million or $1.11 for the quarter which ended on October 31st, 2009.

Last year, the overall net income for the quarter was $560 million or $1.06 million.

The total revenue for the quarter increased $176 million or 6.3% to $2.99 billion from $2.81 billion last year.

The revenue was $10 million ahead of analyst estimates which predicted the revenue to be $2.98 billion last year, according to Thomas Reuters.

BMO noted that there was growth in all of its operating groups, and a reduction in corporate services which helped them boost its revenue during the fourth quarter of 2009.

However, this was offset by the weaker U.S. dollar which decreased revenue growth by $20 million from a year ago.

Bill Downe, BMO’s president and chief executive officer noted that their tight control over staffing levels and supplier costs helped increase their earnings.

Downe does expect that credit losses will remain elevated in 2010, and that BMO is well positioned for further growth as the economy improves.

BMO’s provision for credit losses, which as you may already know, occur when clients do not repay their loans, decreased to $386 million during the quarter.

This was down $79 million from last year. The provisions for general losses were unchanged.

BMO has also added that its Canadian personal and commercial banking, its largest business unit reported a net income of $394 million, which is a huge increase of 22% from a year ago.

For 2009, BMO has noted that its net income has decreased 9.7% to $1.8 billion.

BMO said that its annual net income was lowered by $474 million after-tax due to notable items. The majority was made up of $355 million in charges related to the capital markets environment, $80 million in severance costs and a $39 million increase in the general allowance for credit losses.

Annual revenue totalled $11.1 billion compared to $10.2 billion in 2008. Expense control was a factor in boozing revenue growth for 2009.

BMO has announced a first quarter 2010 dividend of 70 cents per common share, a figure which has been unchanged from the previous quarter.

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