BMO Financial Group Named to Top Ten of Canada's Best 50 Corporate Citizens by Corporate Knights

• BMO ranked top major bank in Canada
• Reflects commitment to sustainable future and carbon neutrality

TORONTO, June 25, 2020 /CNW/ - BMO Financial Group (TSX:BMO) (NYSE:BMO) has been named to the top ten of Corporate Knights' 2020 Canada's Best 50 Corporate Citizens list.

Ranked first among the major banks and ninth overall, BMO was recognized for its sizable portfolio of sustainable loans, as well as its enterprise-wide commitment to creating a sustainable future throughout its operations. BMO scored highly compared to peers on Clean Revenue which measures a company's revenue from all goods and services that have clear environmental benefits.

"Being among the top ten corporate citizens is a great honour and a reflection of BMO's commitment to building a sustainable future," said Dan Barclay, CEO and Group Head, BMO Capital Markets. "We are bringing our Purpose to life through the $250 million BMO Impact Investment Fund, which provides seed capital to find and scale solutions to sustainability. We also continue to mobilize investments and capital in support of companies and clients pursuing sustainable outcomes, with a goal of $400 billion by 2025."

"We're committed to driving positive change for our customers, employees and communities," said Simon Fish, General Counsel for BMO Financial Group and Chair of BMO's Sustainability Council. "This year's top ten ranking underlines the bank's longstanding commitment to sustainability, which we recently reaffirmed by becoming the only bank in Canada to sign the Operating Principles for Impact Management led by the World Bank's International Finance Corporation."

The Best 50 Corporate Citizens ranking sets the standard for sustainability leadership in Canada. Honorees are selected from a pool of 273 Canadian companies with revenues over $1 billion.  Each is evaluated on a set of up to 21 environmental, social and governance indicators, relative to their industry peers and using publicly available information.

BMO was particularly recognized for its enterprise-wide commitment to creating a sustainable future through sustainable finance, including by committing to mobilize $400 billion for sustainable finance by 2025. Operationally, BMO has been carbon neutral since 2010, and the bank recently announced a 2020 goal to match 100 per cent of its electricity usage with electricity produced from renewable sources across global operations.

BMO Financial Group's commitment to creating a sustainable future also includes:

• Maintaining carbon neutrality for its operational emissions, including business travel, since 2010
• First bank in Canada to provide a Sustainability Linked Loan
• Establishing a Sustainable Bond Program
• Published the Sustainable Financing Framework that defines eligible assets across seven green and four social project categories that link to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
• Participating in US$9.4 billion in sustainable bond underwriting, $7.9 billion of renewable energy debt and equity, and providing $4.2 billion of loan commitments to renewable energy entities and projects
• Only bank to have book-run all five of World Bank's sustainable development bonds, helping to provide over $5.5 billion in financing for initiatives aligned with the UN SDGs
• Donating $67.3 million to registered charities and non-profit organizations in Canada and the United States
• Enhancing our disclosure on climate-related risks and opportunities in line with the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
• Adding new disclosure in line with the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards
• 2020 signing of the International Finance Group (World Bank) led Operating Principles for Impact Management

BMO's leadership on sustainability has been recognized on numerous rankings, including:

• Corporate Knights 2020 Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World
• Corporate Knights 2019 Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada
• Ethisphere® Institute's list of the 2019 World's Most Ethical Companies®
• Dow Jones Sustainability Index, North America (2019) for the 15th year in a row

For more information on BMO's commitment to a sustainable future, please visit the 2019 Sustainability Report.

About BMO Financial Group
Serving customers for 200 years and counting, BMO is a highly diversified financial services provider - the 8th largest bank, by assets, in North America. With total assets of $987 billion as of April 30, 2020, and a team of diverse and highly engaged employees, BMO provides a broad range of personal and commercial banking, wealth management and investment banking products and services to more than 12 million customers and conducts business through three operating groups: Personal and Commercial Banking, BMO Wealth Management and BMO Capital Markets.

SOURCE BMO Financial Group

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