After the acquisition of Marshall & Ilsley Corporation, Canada’s BMO Financial Group expects annual earnings from its US personal & commercial and wealth businesses of around $1 billion in the medium term, according to the firm’s president and chief executive officer Bill Downe.

BMO is the parent firm of both Bank of Montreal and Chicago-based Harris Bank.

“Expanding our home market to include the central US is a natural next step," said Downe, speaking at the bank’s annual meeting of shareholders.

"We will grow personal and commercial banking through a network that will comprise some 900 BMO branches in Canada and 700 in the US,” he added.

BMO Financial Group agreed to acquire M&I last December in a stock-for-stock transaction. The latter bank had been experiencing losses following the 2008 global crisis, posting a net loss of $483.5 million in the first nine months of 2010 on top of a recorded loss of $599.3 million in the same period in 2009.

"The acquisition is consistent with our strategy to strengthen our North American businesses. It transforms BMO's position in the US Midwest by bringing together highly complementary businesses that align well with BMO's retail, commercial, and asset and wealth management businesses in the country," Bill Downe, president and chief executive of BMO, said at the time of the acquisition announcement.

Demonstrating it also has expansionary ambitions further afield, earlier this year BMO agreed to acquire Hong Kong-based Lloyd George Management for an undisclosed sum. LGM is an investment manager with some $6 billion in assets under management, focusing on Asia and global emerging markets.

Established in 1817 as Bank of Montreal, BMO provides retail banking, wealth management and investment banking services, and had assets of $413 billion as at 31 January 2011.