Hi all,
I was hoping to see if anyone had some current information regarding BMO in terms of deal flow, culture, hours & compensation, top groups in the US, exit opportunities, etc.
Any info or insights would be helpful and appreciated.
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STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM BMO.
Compensation is not there on bonus, hours are crazy, and culture is a mixed bag.
BMO continues to layoff a lot of people and not promote many who deserve it...while SIMULTANEOUSLY hiring idiots.
Can confirm hours are absolutely miserable and they continue to lay people off
I second this... hiring a bunch of idiots to fill diversity quotas. I know the scholarship SA this year failed/cheated on her accounting exam in school.
Is this for New York, Chicago, or Canada?
2019: irrelevant
2020: irrelevant(?)
2021: irrelevant.
Edit: lol all these MS by angry BMO workers
Anybody with any info?
They laid off a ton of people over the summer. They also cut their SA class in half and pulled my (Chicago) SA offer (know of other friends that got theirs pulled too), so that wasn’t fun. Some of the groups are in pretty good shape tho.
Basically they lost a few heavyweight MDs in their metals and mining group which is like, a ton of their revenue and have had some struggles since then. Still a solid shop tho, just have some issues at the moment it seems. Sure they will recover. That’s just based off of my somewhat limited interactions with them recruiting.
Still a solid shop but losing the BSD mining MDs has hurt their reputation as a leader in the mining sector, some of the other big canadian banks seem keen to fill that spot
They rescinded your 2020 SA offer over the summer? What did they say/ would you mind on explaining? That's ridiculous.. when did this happen?
Yes it was in June. HR just said sorry were going on a hiring freeze and it affected interns. I had friends of mine that had the same thing happen to them.
Must have been a corporate banking internship. You hear anything about IB or S&T?
No this was for IBD Chicago.
I was an intern last summer. Culture is pretty good all around, although HC seems to have a bit of an issue. In general, senior people are extremely approachable and helpful. Groups with more dealflow obviously work more hours. Busiest groups seemed to be IND, HC, and TBS (TMT). LevFin does a ton of business, too. I can't speak much to exits, but my understanding is that the brand alone isn't going to land you many interviews. Analyst signing bonuses are below street, and I've heard that 1st year bonuses are also low. Associate comp seems to be more in line.
Thanks for the info. Any chance you could elaborate on what you mean by HC seems to have a bit of an issue?
Heard some stories that a couple of people left on bad terms a few years ago and I've heard mixed things about the seniors currently running the group. After bonuses hit in the summer they had more analysts leave than was expected, so they were a bit short staffed and the interns got slammed pretty hard. Could definitely be a small issue that got blown a bit out of proportion. Unfortunately, I don't have the whole picture. Hope that helps.
I would stay away from BMO. Over the past couple of years, culture has definitely been an issue, which is likely due to the new management. Compensation is all over the place with very little transparency of what to expect. Deal flow is decent in coverage groups with LevFin being the bread and butter of the firm. If you are interested in M&A, I would steer clear as BMO relies entirely on their balance sheet for relationships. It is a decent brand and you will learn a good amount, but at the moment I don't know a single junior that hasn't verbalized they are looking elsewhere. Morale is VERY bad.
Unfortunately HC outlook remains unchanged bc friends in group cant even get exit options because all recruiters know the group's issues lead to poor candidates
BMO in Canada is unanimously regarded as having the worst culture around; they lay juniors off as a matter of policy every year and no other Canadian bank does that. There are for sure some cool people who work there but it only takes a few toxic individuals to make the environment unbearable.
I heard from people of all levels that they tightening the belt which means comps are down and heads are rolling.
Sounds like it is going to get much worse before it gets better.
What office are these comments referring to? Any insights on SF ?
I hear the Montreal office is a total sweat shop.
Confirmed.
Confirmed here as well. A few close friends of mine have worked in the Montreal office and had truly horrible experiences.
Senior leaders lookout for themselves. Juniors are not well taken care of. I agree with the majority of other criticism posted here.
Does anyone have insight on BMO in Chicago specifically, with regards to comp, hours and deal flow? I know Chicago is their US headquarters so would be interested to hear what it's like
NY holds Capital Markets with IB & S&T. Chicago is corporate banking
Although likely not of interest on an investment banking forum, the BMO USA commercial banking operation (the old Harris Bank), besides being a regional c&i lender in their local territory, punches way above their weight nationally on sponsor deals and large contractors.
Does it really though? It's a Top 10 NA bank by assets, but doesn't compete with JPM and BofA in terms of direct lending. Seems like it is right where one would expect.
BMO has a strong sponsor finance platform in the commercial bank.
I am going to be an intern in the Chicago office this summer (group TBD, but investment banking). Should I be concerned or do you guys think I'm still going to get a good experience overall?
What are your options at this point? Why worry? Go into the summer and get the offer / get a feel if it’s a place you want to stay and make your own opinion.
I was in the NYC office. Agreed with everyone's comments above but will also add some color:
Initially told the interns that they have spots for everyone but ended up pulling offers as the summer went on; potential hiring freeze. The tone was different from the start of the summer when they said that they wanted to grow the class to compete with other MM firms.
First and second year analysts were grumbling about cut bonuses and the difficulty in PE recruiting, although they do place well in certain MM funds. Just don't expect MF folks to even bother looking at your resume. I liked BMO overall, but my group was very cliquey and chose favorites very early in the summer because my alumni connections were outside of my group. Wished I had more time to leverage my offer elsewhere but it exploded before other superdays. If BMO is your only offer, fine. Otherwise, I suggest you leverage it elsewhere.
If you're interested in staying sellside long-term, this is a good place. very high A2A conversion rates.
Did you have any interaction with the DCM team? Impressions?
DCM only comprises of Investment Grade (IG). Lev Fin sits separately and works mostly with coverage especially Sponsors
I'm not sure about the validity of BMO pulling offers since I know that just about every NYC intern received one barring a few
such bs
Same. Almost every intern in IB got one. Personally everyone I talked to got one. S&t is a different story. Only a couple got offers.
One of my friends had a similar experience this summer with regards to offers. Was told there would be spots for everyone, then they went back on it halfway through the summer
When you say very high, what % roughly go a2a vs pe
I can only comment on BMO's Toronto office based on experience from friends who have interned / worked there.
Highly group dependent but hours are for sure worse than other Canadian banks. Buddies who have worked in tough groups like Mining say it's generally 9am to midnight the earliest on weekdays and typically 1 or 2 full days on the weekends. Lots of pitching across the board and generally poor / rough culture stemming from MD/D/VP level.
Turnover is also very high at the Analyst/Associate level and I've heard they frequently layoff Analyst / Associates (especially MBA Associates) who underperform. Bonus (at least in Canada) is on par with other Canadian banks, but Canadian banks pay low base ($85k CAD for Analysts and $100K for Associates - stays flat) so total comp can vary ALOT once you move to Associate 2 and above.
The positive is that BMO at least in Canada tends to get a good chunk of the top mandates (not as many as RBC though). They are typically on big domestic mining deals, large financing mandates, etc. Analysts place relatively well into buyside at least in Canada.
Agree with almost all of this barring one (recent) update. Associate base is now 120k, although it stays flat as you correctly observed.
Wait a second - Associate base in Canada is $120k for all assoc years for BMO? Isn't that BS considering US Associates at BMO are at $150k?
Does anyone have more information about specific groups in NYC?
Curious to hear this as well.
The US/Can banking teams seem to almost be separate businesses, so I wonder if all of these negative comments apply to NY/Chi.
Anyone have info on the DCM reputation in NY? (not Lev Finance).
Seems like the balance sheet size would play well.
DCM is growing and is a brand new group - recently poached some great talent but is still very small. Probably the only group that I presume is growing as there was a job posting for it recently but not sure
Went from nonexistent in US league tables to top 10 in SSA issuances and top 15 in ABS league tables in few years from new leadership.
People across the bank are dissatisfied with pay and hours. The bank is well known for being cheap.
Source: Worked there until leaving recently.
I interned in the Toronto office this summer, I can share my experience from what I saw internally. Summer 2019 was when a lot of disruption took place for BMO. We started in May and in June a huge wave of layoffs occurred. Associate 1 to Deputy Heads of IB were affected. Associates were hit extra hard. We all received an email from the CEO of the division explaining the layoffs.
The new CEO of capital markets made it clear that hes focused on cutting costs aggressively. The entire IB division would get emails from him throughout the summer to lower our cost footprint (one of the emails asked us to print less lol).
As for what this means going forward for all of you (assuming you are students/incoming analysts/incoming interns). Depending on the group, the hours can be nasty. Hours ranged from leaving at 9PM for DCM/ECM interns all the way to consistent 2ams for mining interns. Culture wise, the groups to avoid are mining, diversified and M&A. As part of the cost cutting drive, analyst class size was also cut which decimated the return offer rate. I would say to steer clear of BMO a little while until there's a more clarity on when the culture and strategy will stabilize.
As a person who has worked in IB for 10+ years, the state of professionals at BMOCM feels unprecedented for a relatively stable bank.
I've worked at various banks during my tenure and never before could I state that virtually all of my colleagues are in serious recruitment talks with other banks. Issues list includes unrealistic goals, below street comp, unbearable processes, declining culture - you name it.
For all the younger professionals considering BMOCM, please do your research on the people in your groups, along with the culture of the team.
Too bad it seems they've determined that it's okay to tarnish the franchise. I thought the "bad rep" was isolated to the US, where they've been unable to build the critical mass to compete. Figured the CA franchise would be decent. Believe they were one of the tops in CAD M&A last year.
They're a great bank for deals in Canada. Its just that the culture and hours for some of the groups mentioned above are terrible.
Echoing on this post knowing groups is key but it seems everyone is in a bit of turmoil. In the US industrials from what I hear has the best culture and deal flow. Other groups are rather even in deal flow which is not great to start with. Culture wise healthcare apparently has become toxic under the new head. Lev fin has has seen complete turnover with maybe 1 or 2 senior bankers that've been there longer than 2 years.. obviously not ideal for continuity or any sense of culture.
Senior leadership has been pushing to grow sponsor coverage, bringing in a bunch of new MDs and doubling the number of juniors in that group as well. No idea why so many juniors are needed as all they did historically is set up calls and process NDAs.
Overall not too surprised why everyone is interviewing, I would be as well.
This is probably the most accurate post on BMO. Recently left due to the ridiculously unbearable processes and declining culture.
Genuinely happy that you found a way out.
Cheers.
How is the outlook in corporate banking at bmo?
Have a friend who interned in Corp at a Canadian office. Didn’t get a full time return due to no open spots , but I heard the culture is no where near as bad as the ib teams. Definitely not a shit show
What are the best desks at BMO?
Standing.
I'm assuming you mean the groups within IB, not the trading desks in S&T...
Depends on the year obviously, but while I was there and in no particular order are Industrials, M&A, Sponsors and TBS
No actual trading desks
Comp is absolutely garbage, in both good and bad years (U.S.). I’m talking bonuses of 50% of what you would expect at a reputable bank for a top-bucket performer. Each year I was more surprised than the one before with how low it was...
Their culture is okay but the hours are awful relative to the comp. The protected Saturday’s didn’t really exist.
Deal flow was good though so I managed to fill out my resume. I was lucky to land a good PE exit but very very few of my colleagues did.
I would recommend you stay away unless only other options are boutiques.
Where would you compare BMO to DB? Would you say that given BMO's rise that they're overtaking DB as a new BB player?
Uhhhh, no? Not at all?
BMO is in no current state to overcome DB. They couldn't even stomach the paper expenses and made a presentation on why we should print less. That's not the right mindset to win business...
I remembered once having to ask the execs to put me in on an order of pens... go figure...
Lmao bmo is right there with nomura
BMO is still shitty. During COVID especially, the bank is a shit show.
Is this Canada or US -- I've heard good things from the CHI office in the US....
Anyone know what bonuses look like over at BMO this year? Mainly interested in NYC/CHI.
Stay away. The firm is at the brink of going under. After firing 60 ppl last week, they gave out bonuses this year at the 10-20% of base range. There are some signs of further cuts in headcounts. My entire team is looking for lateral opps as I speak.
Bonuses were significantly down.
Can someone share insights on what bonuses desk quants are getting this year (RBC, BMO) ?
Capital Markets new hires (S&T, IB, Corporate Banking) $85 base + $7.5k signing bonus
Happy to send info directly on BMO left lead and right lead deals, and whatever else you may need. What's the purpose of insight? Interview?
At BMO is there a difference in Analyst/Associate comp between US and Canada?
Yes US comp is higher
All Canadian banks pay differently between US and Canada
Fucked. That's the state.
Any more current comments? Also curious to hear any info on analyst bonuses
Any update here? Currently in a process for a group within cap mkts at BMO and curious on culture.
Same
In the process of interviewing for leveraged lending
Is Leveraged Lending just another term for their Sponsor Finance group?
IDK but SF office sounds like an absolute sweatshop
If you were joining BMO US as a summer analyst what group would you join?
I've heard their SF tech group is decent
If metals & mining exists in the US, join them. They are the undisputed best mining group globally but only do it if you can handle the sweatiness. If not, I heard power & utilities is a strong group as well
that group lost a lot of firepower earlier last year when 2 of the top MDs left for different banks. it’s not what it used to be
LF / FSG / HC / TBS
Can someone comment on the culture at BMO NY?
lol take a guess
Someone I know got contacted by BMO in Toronto....and they're from a smaller bank. They basically said to the HR recruiter 'listen, I don't mean to be rude but everything I've heard has indicated your IB teams are toxic AF, not sure that's a move I can make' and the HR person was like 'yeah....I know.'
Worked there for a few years in IB in NY, didn't lateral due to personal issues.
As an analyst, name wont get you many PE interviews for the most part, coverage groups dont do much modeling, bank relies on balance sheet and doesnt really have many entrenched clients the way an EB has clients that pay just for M&A services, doesnt do left leads often, even in LF team (recently have done some due to hairier deals others stayed away from), bonuses suck and are below street, culture is eh and team dependent. There really isn't any value outside of being able to break in, would recommend lateralling as many analysts successfully have.
I heard juniors received pay raise. Is this true?
The way they treated their Houston office was unnecessary and terrible. It’s amazing that they could think that was okay and wouldn’t impact them in the future.
They also fucked their clients over by obliterating people who were running live deals.
how would you compare it to Truist for an analyst?
Anybody know why BMO is still hiring for Houston even though they shut it down? https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/2506701125
The address provided looks like some kind of a garage or something lol. Search for 700 Louisiana Street, Houston.
Edit: this is wrong, ignore.
Incorrect; that's the same BofA building BMO has been in Houston. Same building as CS.
It's for a SPAC Analyst position. The former BMO Energy IB head in Houston, Jon Marinelli, has been repositioned to lead a new SPAC coverage group. Also lmao at BMO selling out of energy at the cycle low then want to get into SPACs at the SPAC and macroecon market top. Buffet's old greedy/fearful adage comes to mind...
Any update for 2021?
Bump. I would love to know. Canada too
bump same here
Well they bumped analyst base to 100/105, and I heard analyst bonuses were decent this year, so there's that
Mostly positive so far this year.
A&As got base bumps on par with the BB banks and analysts just got significantly improved bonuses. A good sign towards improved business performance and commitment to the juniors.
LF and ECM have both been on a tear this year.
The stronger groups have built up, hired, and had good retention, while a few others have hemorrhaged juniors.
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