BANK LAUNCHES INVESTMENT PROGRAMS
By Adnews Staff
The Bank of Montreal launched a new division last week: the Bank of Montreal Capital Corporation. This unit will invest in small and medium-sized businesses. It has three programs: small business capital, technology investment and strategic investment. The first provides medium-term financing for established, profitable businesses that need capital to grow. The technology investment program, jointly managed with Ventures West, puts venture capital into technology-based companies. Strategic investment money goes into venture capital funds active in markets of interest to the bank. Print advertising for these programs began in October, created by Vickers & Benson Advertising of Toronto.
The Bank of Montreal also launched a new investment service last week called Matchmaker. The bank has customers fill out a questionnaire in order to choose the right combination of funds for them from the First Canadian Mutual Funds group. The customized portfolios can be kept in RRSPs if so desired. The bank will start use print ads and free-standing inserts at the end of this month to publicize Matchmaker. The service will also be promoted on the bank's Web site as well as on the First Canadian site. The print ads and the inserts were created by V&B. The bank created the advertising on the Web with the help of Tarantula Interactive of Toronto.