Bank Of Montreal Acquires CSFBdirect

by Carla Johnson, Investors Offshore.com

30 November 2001

The Bank of Montreal has announced its acquisition of CSFBdirect, Credit Suisse's US-based online trading operation, for US$520 million (CAN$830 million).

CSFBdirect is the sixth acquisition by Bank of Montreal in the US in two years and will increase the Bank's American client base by 50 per cent adding nearly a half a million active client accounts and one million total accounts.

'This acquisition is another significant step forward in our substantial and selective expansion in the US,' said Tony Comper, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Montreal. 'CSFBdirect is an outstanding addition to our US operations ... bringing us closer to our goal of becoming a truly trans-national financial services firm with significant operations on both sides of the Canada-US border.'

The Bank of Montreal confirmed that CSFBdirect will be integrated with Harris InvestorLine to create a new firm called Harris Direct Investing and will be part of The Harris, the bank's wealth management business in the US.

Blake Darcy, CSFBdirect's Chief Executive Officer, commented: 'This is an important step in the evolution of the CSFBdirect business. We have built a strong online retail franchise and with the support of the Bank of Montreal, we will be able to leverage the great strengths of their franchise and take this business to the next level.'

The transaction is expected to conclude early next year following regulatory approvals from the US and Canada.

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