Candian financial services giant backs Edinburgh with new capital office

The Bank of Montreal has announced plans to move its Edinburgh fund management operation into a new flagship office.

The Canadian financial giant’s BMO Global Asset Management arm has taken a 15-year lease on a penthouse suite in the Quartermile complex by Edinburgh university where it will base 118 staff who worked in BMO’s office on George Street.

BMO’s workforce in the Scottish capital provides accounting and customer service support for BMO’s investment trust business and are responsible for much of the work done by its European finance function.

The firm’s move across the city comes three years after BMO, which has around £190 billion under management, moved into Scotland following its 2014 acquisition of F&C Asset Management, through which it acquired the Edinburgh-based fund manager Ivory & Sime.

BMO said its Edinburgh operation, which is headed by Marrack Tonkin, continues to play a strategically important role in its Europe, Middle East and Africa division.