Bank of Montreal to Grow California Footprint by Nearly 60% With 130 New Spots
The firm plans to open seven new locations in the Golden State this year, including three in the Greater Los Angeles area
By Nick Trombola March 19, 2026 1:26 pm
reprints
At a time when many companies are packing up their wagon trains to move out of California, Canada’s Bank of Montreal (BMO) is taking the opposite approach.
BMO, one of Canada’s largest banks, plans to open more than 130 locations in California and roughly 15 locations in Arizona over the next five years. With more than 220 existing locations in the Golden State, BMO’s expansion plans would increase its footprint by nearly 60 percent in California alone. Reuters first reported the news.
The bank is expecting to open seven new storefronts in California in 2026: three in Greater Los Angeles, two in San Diego and another two in the San Francisco Bay Area. The exact addresses and sizes of these spaces were not immediately available.
BMO’s expansion plans are the next iteration for a company that has grown massively over the past few years. The bank in 2023 acquired BNP Paribas‘ U.S. division for $16.3 billion — its biggest acquisition ever — automatically making it a top 10 U.S. bank. That acquisition grew BMO’s U.S. assets by some 50 percent, adding approximately 500 retail stores to its repertoire.
Yet BMO isn’t just expanding across the board. The bank announced in October that it would sell 138 locations to First Citizens Bank & Trust Company to reinvest in higher-growth states such as California. Under the deal, which is expected to close later this year, First Citizens will assume approximately $5.7 billion in deposits and buy about $1.1 billion in debt from BMO in exchange for the properties.
Despite California’s high cost of doing business, and the recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic Bank, BMO isn’t the only financial institution expanding its presence on the West Coast lately. Customers Bank recently opened five new locations in Southern California, Sacramento, Las Vegas and in Reno, Nev., Commercial Observer reported in November, in order to fill the gap created by closures and bank mergers.
Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.
