AIM program director, Dr. David Krause said, "On Friday ten AIM students were able to visit the BMO Capital Markets Trading Floor in Chicago thanks to Dave Kucera and Brian Liedlich. It was very impressive and surprised all of us with the size of the operations. This was a massive trading floor which is similar in size and scope as the operations we see in New York." |
| Mayor Daley's visit to BMO |
BMO Capital Markets is a leading, full-service North American financial services provider, with over 2,000 employees operating in 14 North American offices and 26 worldwide, offering corporate, institutional and government clients access to a complete range of investment and corporate banking products and services. BMO Capital Markets is a member of BMO Financial Group (NYSE, TSX: BMO), one of the largest diversified financial services providers in North America with US$386 billion total assets and 38,000 employees as at July 31, 2010.
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| Trading Floor |
Krause commented, "Chicago has been a recent hub of activity for BMO Capital Markets and I've read that they are currently one of the Chicago's top investment employers. While Mayor Daley's visit earlier this year to BMO Capital Markets for the unveiling of the new state-of-the-art, 16,000 square-foot trading floor in the heart of Chicago’s financial district attracted more attention than ours, we were thankful to have the opportunity to visit the floor. It was very impressive." It is located at 115 South LaSalle and houses 145 employees, who, collectively, make thousands of trades daily with daily trading volumes in excess of $40 billion.
BMO Capital Markets has been steadily attracting top talent to all areas of its business, especially in the United States. Since last year, BMO Capital Markets has hired more than 450 employees worldwide with more than 140 of those professionals based in the United States.The students met with Dave Kucera (MU '84), Managing Director / Head of US Securitization Group, who arranged the visit.
BMO's Securitization Group creates liquidity for previously illiquid assets (auto loans, student loans, etc.) at a lower cost than most traditional financing instruments. Virtually any monetary asset with a contractual payment flow can be securitized. This allows capital to be raised by companies with contractually committed future cash flows, such as royalties or other non-executory contracts. BMO can, in turn, provide investors with almost any level of risk, from AAA to non-investment grade. Dave Kucera and his Chicago-based team publish a monthly securitization newsletter.
Dr. Krause said, "We enjoyed our visit to BMO and we were pleased that Dave Kucera could attend the student presentations earlier in the day. We look forward to expanding our relationship with BMO Capital Markets and the AIM program."
