Mr. Ralph Marranca reports

BANK OF MONTREAL RECEIVES REGULATORY APPROVALS FOR NORMAL COURSE ISSUER BID

Bank of Montreal has received approvals from the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Canada (OSFI) to proceed with its previously announced normal course issuer bid through the facilities of the TSX to purchase, for cancellation, up to 15 million of its common shares, commencing Feb. 1, 2015, and ending Jan. 31, 2016.

The maximum number of common shares that may be repurchased under the normal course issuer bid represents approximately 2.3 per cent of the bank's public float (as such term is defined in the TSX Company Manual) of common shares.

The timing and amount of purchases under the program are subject to regulatory approvals and to management discretion based on factors such as market conditions. The bank will pay the market price for the shares at the time of acquisition.

There were 647,010,114 Bank of Montreal common shares issued and outstanding as at Jan. 20, 2015, and the public float was 646,296,492 common shares. The average daily trading volume for the six months ended Dec. 31, 2014, and the daily maximum number of shares available for purchase, calculated pursuant to the rules of the TSX for the purposes of the bid, were 1,292,561 and 323,140 shares, respectively.

BMO's current normal course issuer bid commenced on Feb. 1, 2014, and will expire on Jan. 31, 2015. Over the term of the current bid to Jan. 26, 2015, BMO has purchased three million of its common shares at an average price of $80.01 per share.