In 1882, Norman Wait Harris established N.W. Harris & Co., a Chicago-based municipal bond broker and the forerunner of Harris Bank. Harris Trust and Savings Bank was established 1907. It merged with Chicago National Bank in 1960 and was restructured as Harris Bank, N.A. in 1972. Bank of Montreal acquired Harris in 1984. The bank grew rapidly through a series of acquisitions beginning with the First National Bank of Barrington in 1985, State Bank of St. Charles and First National Bank of Batavia in 1988 and LibertyvilleFederal Savings Bank and Loan and Frankfort Bancshares in 1990. Harris Bankcorp and Suburban Bancorp combined under the Harris name in 1994 and two years later, the company acquired 54 Chicago area branches from Household Bank. In 1999, the direct brokerage firm Burke, Christensen & Lewis merged with Harris Investors Direct to form Harris InvestorLine. The company's further acquisitions include Freeman Welwood in 2000; Village Bank of Naples, and Century Bank and First National Bank of Joliet in 2001; Northwestern Trust and Investors Advisory Company in 2002. Also in 2002, InvestorLine combined with CSFBdirect to form Harrisdirect and Harris acquired online client accounts of Morgan Stanley Individual Investor Group and myCFO. The following year, it purchased Sullivan, Bruyette Speros & Blayney Incorporated, followed by Lakeland Community Bank in Round Lake, Trust and Savings Bank in 2005. The bank encourages pronouncing it as "B-MO". BMO continued its acquisitions in 2007 with First National Bank & Trust, followed by Ozaukee Bank, and Merchant and Manufacturers Bankcorp Inc., in 2008 and Amcore Bank N.A. on April 23, 2010. On December 17, 2010, Bank of Montreal agreed to purchase Milwaukee-based Marshall & Ilsley Corporation in an all-stock transaction valued at about US$4.1 billion. Marshall & Ilsley and Harris Bankcorp were both rebranded as BMO Harris. The company restructured as BMO Bankcorp July 5, 2011. In December 2015, the company completed its acquisition of General Electric Capital Corp.'s transportation finance business.
Operations
BMO Harris Bank N.A. is the 16th largest commercial bank in the US. BMO Harris Bank is one of the largest banks in the Midwest with over 600 branches and approximately 1,300 ATMs in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Arizona and Florida. It is the second-largest Chicago-area bank based on market share, behind JPMorgan Chase, and the second largest US subsidiary of a Canadian bank after TD Bank, N.A.. BMO Harris Bank, N.A. is the issuer of the Diners Club cards in United States.
Headquarters
BMO Harris is headquartered in a complex of three buildings in Chicago's Loop neighborhood. The original 21-story building was constructed in 1910 at 119 West Monroe Street. The entrance to the building is flanked by two bas-relief sculptures of lions, which inspired various iterations of the bank's logo until 2011, along with the bank's mascot character, Hubert the Lion. In 1960, a 23-story structure was added to the east with the address of 111 West Monroe. In 1974, a second 38-story tower was added to the west with the address of 115 South LaSalle Street. Both additions were designed by the firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and are in the modern style. The bank uses the address of the 1960 building. In December 2018, the bank announced it would move its headquarters to 14 floors of a 50-story office tower adjacent to Chicago Union Station. The bank expects the new BMO Tower to be ready in 2022. Additionally, notable BMO Harris buildings are located in Milwaukee, at 770 North Water Street, and Indianapolis. In 2017, the bank began construction of a 25-story BMO Tower at North Water and East Wells, adjacent to its current Milwaukee headquarters. The bank expects to occupy of the building beginning in December 2019. In August 2017, the BMO Harris sold the 20-story structure it currently occupies to real estate firm Irgens who plans to remodel and lease it.
