BMO Financial Group has re-branded its US private bank, combining Harris Private Bank and part of M&I Wealth Management under the name BMO Private Bank. The new bank will have around 1,250 financial professionals across 57 offices in 13 states.  

The re-brand echoes developments in August, when BMO Financial Group merged its two advisor networks, Harris Bank and M&I Bank, to create BMO Harris Financial Advisors - a network of around 230 professionals with some $12 billion in client assets.

BMO Private Bank will have a strong presence in the Midwest, said Terry Jenkins, president and chief executive, BMO Private Bank, US, and will look to continue to “attract top talent.”

“We're very excited about the value proposition that we offer to advisors,” he said.

It was announced in December 2010 that Toronto-listed BMO Financial Group was acquiring Marshall & Ilsley, after M&I posted a net loss of $483.5 million in the first nine months of 2010. The deal furthered BMO’s strategy of growing in North America, and particularly the US Midwest, where it has retail, commercial, asset and wealth management businesses.

In April 2012 it emerged that three wealth management executives who joined BMO Financial Group as part of the acquisition of Marshall & Ilsley had departed.

Kenneth Krei, executive vice president and head of BMO Global Private Bank, which includes Canadian and US operations, is believed to have retired while Jim Duca, executive vice president, BMO Global Private Bank for the US, and Jamie Cahn, president of BMO Institutional Trust Services, left to pursue other opportunities.

The bank continues to seek out synergies between the two businesses, Jenkins said in August.