BMO just announced the first wave of layoffs affecting all capital markets teams. Analysts, Associates, and VPs were affected. If you are at BMO looking to leave, you might want to start thinking about it now since they will not warn you about the decision in advance but rather the day of.
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what groups
See below
do you know headcount by group or total headcount that got cut?
looks like someone mentioned below that 4 people from the tech team was the biggest cut, any other context?
Groups and offices?
All Groups. Toronto, NY, SF CHI.
Anyone in M&A?
Montreal affected as well?
Analyst 1s up to MDs
1 month before bonus, brutal
The ultimate disrespect
Just brutal for analysts
BMO does this frequently. Shit firm tactic.
closed the houston office this way as well
Literally go read any other layoff thread on here.. almost every bank has made analyst cuts in the last 2 months - not a BMO thing. Also, as far as I’ve counted only 4 analysts were fired bank wide in the U.S.
even mining and M&A?
Not sure about minings. Can’t imagine they’ll cut people from their best group. But you never know.
I believe mining will be fine as a result of, their workload and deal flow
Coverage directors and MDs affected in NY
Goal is ~2 to 3 total across each group. Mostly focused on lower revenue Directors & MDs + a select few bottom bucket analysts and sub-prime MBA associates/VPs. If you had middle bucket or better reviews + already had your midyear discussion, would assume you are fine. Most cuts were made during midyear review conversations.
Do you know which group was most impacted?
No idea but the Group that they are “expanding” in the U.S. got 20% of their juniors cut. Do with what you will with the number. But like the comment above mentioned, if you got a need “improve”/ an MBA associate/ doing meaningless work for the past few months, I would go look for another job. Last thing you want to deal with is getting let go day of. Hope this helps.
Tech team was most impacted
Damn
Shit firm
Top 15 in league tables for my coverage group in M&A with solid MM and LMM PE exits, and I haven’t worked past 1am in the last 3 months but go off intern
the context is not their league table performance, the context is their culture and how they go about layoffs.
This is the first time I’ve ever heard someone proudly point to a top 15 league table ranking
if your seat is good, it’s despite (not because) of this ha
Not to mention the people are awesome
Not to mention the people are awesome
What groups are most impacted in Chicago?
following
lol BMO laid off its entire Houston team right around a holiday weekend and paid zero deferred comp or any kind of severance other than what was mandated by law and people are surprised? I'm Canadian by citizenship (work in the US) and everyone on Bay street knows how toxic BMO is.
It's so over for BMO Bros
.
People still get severance plus accrued bonus when they get fired
They cut their bottom bucket performers across all groups
First real round of layoffs, more to come in fall most likely
No accrued bonus and a warning would have been nice.
analysts are still getting bonus at least, unsure about other levels
edit: why would you MS the fact that analysts are getting bonuses lmao
Why do you think there’s more to come in fall?
It's their playbook, they usually cut analysts/associates right around this time and during the fall, closer to the bonus firm-wide payout, they cut the VPs/Ds/MDs. The analyst/associate cuts right before bonuses are usually a leading indicator for the fall cuts.
First round of cuts would be fairly easy to do -- just cut the people who are bottom bucket performers
Second round would be downsizing your team. Investment Banking as a business has a lot of operating leverage and it cuts both ways, when revenue is soft its tough to control costs so you cut the headcount to right size your team for the environment which will surely be weaker than C-19 bull market.
A2A promos will not be guaranteed, analysts who don't get the promo are expected to quit and its an easy way to cut head count.
Damn they laid off Gerrick Johnson as well, he spent 20+ years as a sell-side analyst there
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