The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition Bank of Montreal is making efforts to streamline its operations as customers migrate toward on-line transactions. The Globe's David Berman writes those efforts have left BMO with a hefty restructuring charge in its second quarter results.
The bank trimmed its head count during the quarter, including jobs in its capital markets arm.
These job losses contributed to a restructuring charge of $106-million, enough to lower BMO's earnings by 7 per cent.
The bank reported earnings of $1-billion, or $1.49 a share. It boosted its quarterly dividend to 82 cents a share, up two cents, continuing a recent pattern of raising the payout every six months.
After accounting for the restructuring charge, BMO's adjusted earnings rose 5 per cent, to $1.71 per share, beating analysts' estimates.
"Overall, we view the quarter positively," said RBC analyst Darko Mihelic in a note. "The only negative is BMO's inability to produce positive operating leverage in Canada, punctuated by a restructuring charge."
The collapse in the price of crude oil hung over the banks earlier this year, but the impact remains hard to see in BMO's estimate of bad loans.
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