The new owners of Bank of the West announced hundreds of Bay Area layoffs, including more than 20 employees in San Francisco, according to documents filed with the state of California in October.
BMO Bank N.A. bills itself as the eighth-largest bank in North America by assets, serving more than 13 million customers across the United States, Canada and other key markets with total assets of $1.25 trillion as of July 31.
In February, when it closed its acquisition of Bank of the West and its nearly 1.8 million customers, it said it would alert its customers about service changes and account conversions this fall.
BMO will permanently lay off 228 employees, including 28 positions at its Montgomery Street address in Downtown San Francisco, an Oct. 25 notice sent to the California Department of Employment Development said. The other employees will be let go from the former Bank of the West corporate offices in San Ramon's Bishop Ranch business park.
The layoffs will begin Dec. 8, but terminations could continue through Dec. 22, BMO employee relations head Angela Perez told the state in its WARN letter Sept. 19.
"Changing business needs require us to reduce our workforce" at the facilities, Perez said in the letter.
According to a new research report from the company's BMO Blue Book, which predicts a slight slowdown of the national economy starting early next year, Northern California's economy is described as "cooling off after a respectable second quarter performance," with "challenging housing affordability and high costs of living" as "an impediment for stronger economic activity." It added that "[c]ompanies are focusing on their capital expenditure and finding new ways to remain lean in the current economic climate."
"We recognize that this is a challenging time for our colleagues whose roles have been impacted. We are working closely with affected employees to provide support and to ensure they are treated with fairness and respect," a BMO spokesperson told The Standard. "We are supporting California communities through BMO EMpower 2.0, our more than $40 billion community benefits plan, with over $16 billion of the planned commitment targeted for California."
In late September, Bay Area technology companies announced hundreds of layoffs in five cities. Notably, Cisco Systems Inc. laid off hundreds of workers in two San Francisco Bay Area cities.
Earlier in October, California tech giant Qualcomm announced it was laying off 1,258 California workers—including almost 200 in the Bay Area, according to California Employment Development Department documents known as WARN notices.