Bank of Montreal is cutting 228 jobs in California's Bay Area next month, as the Canadian lender continues to shed positions following its February acquisition of San Francisco-based Bank of the West, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification report it filed in the state last month.
The cuts will impact 200 jobs at the bank’s office in San Ramon, and an additional 28 at Bank of the West’s former headquarters at 180 Montgomery St. in the city’s financial district, according to the notice, which was filed with the Employment Development Department in California.
BMO agreed to buy Bank of the West from BNP Paribas for $16.3 billion in December 2021. The deal, which closed on Feb. 1 this year, created the 13th-largest U.S. commercial bank with roughly $256 billion in assets, according to figures from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
”We recognize that this is a challenging time for our colleagues whose roles have been impacted,” a BMO spokesperson said in a statement to Banking Dive. “We are working closely with affected employees to provide support and to ensure they are treated with fairness and respect. We are supporting California communities through BMO EMpower 2.0, our more than $40 billion community benefits plan, with over $16 billion dollars of the planned commitment targeted for California.”
The cuts, which will take effect Dec. 8, follow a previous round of layoffs the firm made in California in September, when it shed 250 positions in the Bay Area.
The firm has also trimmed staff at offices in Omaha, Nebraska, Thornton, Colorado and Milwaukee, Wisconsin in recent months.
BMO’s capital markets unit in June also cut around 100 positions or 3.5% of the department’s staff amidst a downturn in dealmaking
