BMO taking claims of data breach ‘extremely seriously’

The head of the Bank of Montreal said Wednesday that protecting privacy is of the highest importance to the lender, just days after the bank revealed it had been contacted by “fraudsters” claiming they had obtained customer information.

“I want our customers to know that we take any attack on us and on them extremely seriously,” said Darryl White, chief executive at BMO, during a quarterly conference call with analysts. “We’re reaching out personally to all of those impacted and taking all available means to protect their accounts.”

The alleged incident is believed to have affected fewer than 50,000 BMO accounts, according to the bank, which has also said it is confident any “exposures” connected with client data have been sealed off. A similar issue was reported by Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s Simplii Financial.

The risks could come with the territory. BMO, like other banks, is doing more and more business digitally.

“From a risk perspective, we are now in an increasingly digital age that brings benefits to our customers, but also new challenges for industries like ours,” said Surjit Rajpal, BMO’s chief risk officer. “We will continue to enhance our layered defences, and learning from incidents like this only strengthen us and our industry.”

White’s comments on Wednesday came after the bank reported a $192-million after-tax restructuring charge tied to its transformation.

“We’re continuing to invest in our technology agenda, focused on automating processes and engaging more customers through personalized digital capabilities,” White said, noting on the call that more than 25 per cent of BMO’s Canadian retail sales and nearly 40 per cent of credit card sales now originate from digital channels.

BMO still reported Wednesday a profit of approximately $1.25 billion for its second quarter, down slightly from the year ago period, albeit including the hit from the restructuring charge.

It said the charge was mostly due to severance payments from job cuts, “as a result of an ongoing bank-wide initiative to simplify how we work, drive increased efficiency, and invest in technology to move our business forward.”