Bank of Montreal

Bank of Montreal has the feel of a classic Canadian full-service bank, with the usual mix of personal banking, cards, lending, and business services. By our assessment, that breadth is its main strength: it can cover a lot of ordinary financial needs under one roof. The trade-off is that a bank like this is not built to feel boutique, so the experience can be standard and occasionally bureaucratic. In practice it is steady and familiar, the sort of place people use because it is there and it does the expected jobs. Against smaller competitors, it wins on range rather than on personality. Bank of Montreal belongs to the Canadian banking core, and it behaves like one of the old established names in that market.