BMO Capital Markets has been named the Best Bank for the Canadian Dollar by FX Week Magazine. The award is determined by votes from foreign exchange market professionals around the world. The FX Week Best Bank Awards are presented annually in London, U.K. during November.

In this year’s survey, nearly 7,000 respondents from banks, corporate treasurers and investors, including fund managers, institutional investors and hedge funds, nominated their preferred banks, brokers and vendors in 39 categories. The BMO Capital Markets FX group holds a dominant position in the Canadian-dollar foreign exchange market and is top-ranked by large hedge funds and pension funds for institutional liquidity and pricing capacity. This accolade further demonstrates the group’s ability to help clients turn currency risk into reward.

BMO Capital Markets has been named the best foreign exchange bank in Canada by European CEO Magazine. The European CEO awards panel used a wide range of criteria for voters to consider, such as innovation, originality and quality of products, as well as proof of market development and excellence in client representation.

BMO Capital Markets' Foreign Exchange Group is a team of nearly 100 professionals based in eight cities around the world from Beijing to Chicago. The FX group holds a dominant position in the Canadian-dollar foreign exchange market and is top-ranked by large hedge funds and pension funds for institutional liquidity and pricing capacity.

BMO Capital Markets was the winner in the “Best Live Event” category at the 2009 American Business Awards in New York. The firm won the award in recognition of our Global Metals and Mining Conference, which provides an unparalleled client experience for over 1,000 people from 21 countries.

BMO Capital Markets was also a Finalist in three other categories at this year’s awards: Best Marketing Department; Best Marketing Brochure (Global Metals & Mining brochure); and Best Corporate Social Responsibility Program (Equity Through Education).

Also known as the “Stevie” awards, the American Business Awards competition is open to companies of all sizes, and in all sectors, across the United States. The 2009 awards drew a total of more than 2,500 entries, with the final winners round being judged by nearly a dozen high-profile business executives.

BMO Capital Markets took home three silver awards for: ROI (Return on Investment); Out of Home, Single; and Interactive Media Campaign categories. We also received two bronze awards for: Multimedia, Campaign; and Print, Campaign categories.

The awards were determined by a panel of 16 judges - all senior executives in Advertising and Financial Services. Over 500 individual pieces of creative work were evaluated from a who's who of financial services companies. Awards for 2008 were handed out in four categories: Corporate Image; Business to Business (B2B); Consumer Retail; and ROI.

Harris and BMO Capital Markets were recognized as a Top Ten contributor for the United Way Metro Chicago 2008 campaign. The firm was also honored with two awards: the Innovative Promotion Materials award which recognized the inventive marketing efforts that were employed to promote LIVE UNITED, and the Volunteerism Pillar award, which recognizes the company that best encourages and supports its employees’ involvement through hands-on volunteerism.

The Wall Street Journal’s annual financial analyst ranking, “Best on the Street”, reviews nearly 50 major industry groups, ranking the top analysts within each business segment. The stock pickers in each industry are ranked by their recommendation-performance scores for 2008.

Four BMO Capital Markets analysts were recognized for their stock picking abilities in biotechnology; business and industrial services; household and personal products; and retailers: broadline and apparel.

BMO Capital Markets placed first in the 2009 Thomson Reuters StarMine Canadian analyst awards. StarMine is an independent firm that measures the performance of analysts based on the returns of their stock picking recommendations and the accuracy of their earnings estimates. The 2009 awards apply to 2008 calendar-year performance and estimates for Canadian-based companies in 20 sectors. In an exceptionally volatile year, BMO Capital Markets won the award for Top Broker by collecting 17 individual awards.

A full list of the winners can be found on the StarMine website.

BMO’s Guangzhou branch was named “Most Popular Market Maker” in 2008 – as determined by a popularity vote among market makers. The three runners up were all Chinese banks – Industrial Bank of China, Bank of China and Bank of Communications.

BMO was also named "Best Market Maker" for 2008. This award, which is determined by the China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS), takes into account technical indices/indicators, market votes and scoring by regulators. BMO was the only foreign bank to win this award.

In addition, BMO was the only bank to be awarded "Best non-USD Market Maker” in 2008, as we have the largest share of volume in non-USD CNY crosses.

BMO Capital Markets was awarded the 2008 Media Strategy Award for Investment Banking by the Journal of Financial Advertising & Marketing (JFAM). The finalists in the Investment Banking category were BMO Capital Markets, UBS and Standard Chartered. The judging panel was made up of senior marketers from over three dozen financial services companies and agencies.

© 2010 BMO Capital Markets Corp.