The Bank of Montreal will cut about 1,000 support jobs as part of a restructuring to improve efficiency and boost profits, the bank announced late Wednesday.
The bank said most of the job cuts will take place in fiscal 2007, which ends Oct. 31. BMO has about 35,000 employees.
"We owe it to our customers, our employees and our shareholders to have lean, efficient support functions, simplified processes, fewer layers and to eliminate duplication across our enterprise," CEO Tony Comper said in a release. Comper steps down as CEO in March.
BMO said the jobs being eliminated are mainly in "non-customer-facing areas of the company across all support functions and business groups."
RDI, the CBC's French-language all-news television network, said most of the cuts are in the Toronto area. A BMO spokesperson told CBC News that some cuts will take place in the U.S. at the bank's Harris Bank subsidiary in Chicago. Some cuts are also planned for Montreal.
News of the cuts comes two months after the bank reported a record $2.7 billion annual profit. But the final quarter of the year fell short of analysts' expectations.
A company statement said Wednesday's job cuts — and their cost savings — are "important to achieving the 2007 financial targets" that were outlined in November.
BMO said it will take a restructuring charge of $135 million when it releases its first quarter results on March 1. Most of that is for severance costs.
