As part of its five-year, $5 billion BMO EMpower effort, BMO launched BMO for Native-owned Enterprises. This initiative aims to assist in an inclusive economic recovery for minority businesses, communities, and families through lending, investing, giving, and engaging in local communities. The program increases the bank’s involvement in small company financing to improve resources for Native American-owned enterprises in addition to those owned by women, black people, and people of color.
Greater access to working cash, profitable networking opportunities, training resources, and tools to launch, expand, and grow are all features of BMO for Native-owned Businesses. The bank’s latest specialised credit-lending offering is included, which offers customers enhanced credit criteria and affordable interest rates.
BMO is collaborating with Native CDFI Network (NCN), a group that improves Native American communities’ access to capital and financial services in order to help them flourish and expand. Through the relationship, Native American communities all around BMO’s territory will receive more money and resources.
“At the heart of Native CDFI Network’s (NCN) work is economic justice for Native people through access to capital and basic financial services,” said NCN Interim CEO Pete Upton in the release. “This newly formed partnership between NCN and BMO will more directly connect small business owners with Native CDFIs and, in turn, strengthen financial inclusion of Native people.”
The news is a continuation of BMO’s dedication to creating a society that is inclusive and has no barriers. The following are some of the ways in which the bank helps black people in the United States and Canada:
•The launch of BMO EMpower, which is a pledge to invest US$5 billion over the next five years in order to solve significant challenges that minority-owned businesses, communities, and families in the United States confront. The EMpower initiative is a collection of long-term commitments with the goals of fostering significant change and promoting racial justice.
•The establishment of the Black and Latino Advisory Council (BLAC), which focuses on improving the employee experience, advancing employees’ careers, and engaging Black and Latino talent by means of specialized task forces and relationships with BMO’s Employee Resource Groups (ERGs).
•Zero Barriers to Inclusion 2025 is a commitment to increase the representation of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) employees at all levels in both Canada and the United States. This includes increasing the percentage of People of Color in senior leadership roles to at least 30 percent in both Canada and the United States.
•The launch of BMORE, a workforce development program, in partnership with the Chicago-based non-profit organization Cara, with the goal of recruiting people from underrepresented and diverse communities into professions in the financial services industry.
•The launch of BMO’s Black & Bold series, which consists of a collection of interviews highlighting the achievements of forward-thinking Black women business owners.
•Financial assistance for the Black Journalism Fellowship offered by the Canadian Journalism Foundation in order to foster future leaders and promote the voices of black journalists.
•A significant financial backer of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network and a signatory to the BlackNorth Initiative.
BMO is the 8th largest bank in North America based on its asset size, and it has been serving its customers for almost 200 years and counting. BMO is a highly diversified provider of financial services. BMO provides a broad range of personal and commercial banking, wealth management, and investment banking products and services to more than 12 million customers. The company conducts business through three operating groups: Personal and Commercial Banking, BMO Wealth Management, and BMO Capital Markets. BMO had total assets of $988 billion as of October 31, 2021, and a team of diverse and highly engaged employees.
