In 2023, BMO Financial Group acquired Bank of the West. Erminia "Ernie" Johannson, BMO's group head of North American personal and business banking, led the integration. 

Executives at BMO saw possibilities in Bank of the West from the first meeting. BMO had built its mobile banking, payments, and capital platform capabilities. Bank of the West was expanding on the West Coast and has a wealth management business, both of which complement BMO's product offerings and geography. "We knew we needed to grow," Johannson said.

In addition to being a good fit on the business front, Johannson said culture was another important factor in the decision to merge the two banks. "We knew it was right from the get-go because of the culture, which is very customer-first. They have a commitment to the communities where they work, a strong employee culture, a climate agenda, they give back to the community, and they're committed to small-business growth," Johannson said. "The more you think alike, the more you're able to sit in rooms and get one plus one to equal three. You can get quickly from getting to know each other to getting stuff done."

The project took 20 months of planning and multiple dry runs. The integration team, which was 50 percent women, talked with conversion teams at other banks to learn best practices. 

The team represented 23 workstreams from both BMO and Bank of the West's lines of businesses, including HR, legal, marketing and communications. They were tasked with completing more than 1,500 requirements to unify hundreds of systems, including products, services, technology and processes. The team planned each part of the integration in detail, documenting how they would perform every step. 

"We built innovative digital tools to help customers and employees coming in from Bank of the West," Johannson said, adding that team members tested the tools by role playing as customers or Bank of the West employees.

Finally, Johannson's team spent Labor Day weekend doing the actual, live conversion. The most difficult part of the conversion was making sure that the team was supporting customer-facing employees who would need to help Bank of the West clients make the shift to the new, combined organization. Those workers were the front line, and they were nervous. "This is new for them. Helping them be as successful as possible was really important," Johannson said.

Her team brought 2 million new customers to BMO, moved thousands of Bank of the West employees to BMO, converted 330 systems, and changed the signs on 500 branches. The effort won a 2024 Celent Model Bank Award for Integration Excellence, recognizing BMO and Bank of the West for extraordinary efforts and best practices in migration and onboarding the new customer base within a brief period, and for offering exemplary customer service before and after the transition. 

 After the conversion was completed, the team moved on to other aspects of the acquisition. Johannson spearheaded a listening tour among employees who have newly joined BMO, asking for ideas on ways to change employee or customer experiences. Three-quarters of the changes have been implemented and the remaining quarter have action plans. 

Johannson also drove a successful marketing launch into the combined operation's new markets and attracted 82,000 new clients, in addition to retaining the customers who came over from Bank of the West. Post integration, BMO is now the 11th largest bank in the U.S. with $264.6 billion in assets and more than 4 million American customers.

Johannson said she's very proud of her team's hard work and dedication. "One of my colleagues realized that a piece of communication hadn't gone out correctly to 50 customers, and so she sent out paperwork to individual customers by courier," Johannson says. "I still remember her licking envelopes — and she's head of the business banking group."

She's proud of the families behind her team members, too. Johannson recalled a colleague's child sending cookies for the team while they were working on a weekend. 

"You plan as much as you can plan," Johannson said. "We had thousands of things to execute. You need a team that can deal with the unexpected. The ability to be agile in the moment is powerful, and so are people who are thinking end to end. We were successful because our team thought that way and knew enough about what other people were doing to get how roles fit together."

BMO, she continued, came out of the merger "with these amazing people who are riding a high of accomplishing something they've been planning for a couple of years. Now the plan is to grow the business."

Team Members

Kim Biehler, Head of Enablement & Delivery for North American Personal & Business Banking

Catherine Blaesing, Vice President of Corporate & Commercial Credit, U.S.

Carolyn Booth, Head of Distribution for U.S. Personal & Business Banking

Larissa Chaikowsky, U.S. Chief Human Resources Officer; Head of Talent Reskilling and Acceleration

Julie Clausing, Head, Business Technology

Christine DeMott, U.S. General Counsel – P&BB

Christina Dabrowski, MD, Special Projects, U.S. Contact Centers

Brianna Elsass, Head, U.S. Digital

Tami Farrow, Head of US Personal & Business Banking Indirect Lending

Melissa Garcia, National Sales Manager, P&BB

Kimberley Goode, Chief Communications and Social Impact Officer

Ernie Johannson, Group Head, North American Personal & U.S. Business Banking

Mary Kay Kaminski, Managing Director, Personal & Business Banking (T&O)

Shannon Kennedy, Head, US Wealth Management

Niamh Kristufek, Head of U.S. Business Banking

Stephanie Lake, Chief Operating Officer of U.S. Wealth Management

Kim Liautaud, Head of U.S. Commercial Banking Segment 

Tamekia Muhammad, Managing Director – Head, U.S. Technology Project Management Office

Pam Piarowski, U.S. Controller & Chief Accountant

Colleen Vukelic, Head of Business and Process Optimization

Ann Marie Wright, U.S. Chief Risk Officer BMO Financial Group