BMO Rolls Out New Line Of Commercial Cards

BMO Bank of Montreal is expanding its commercial card portfolio with a focus on small businesses.

The FI announced Monday (Feb. 5) that it is launching four new small business credit card products with various spender benefits. According to BMO, its benefits programs target spend categories that are popular with small firms, including office suppliers, utility bills and gas purchases.

“Customer experience is the driving factor for all the products and services that BMO looks to introduce, and this new lineup of small business credit cards truly raises the bar with industry lending options,” said BMO Financial Group Head of Small Business Solutions and Governance, North American Retail Payments and Canadian Personal and Business Banking, Adrian Lang, in a statement. “Our goal is to help small businesses reach their potential and scale more efficiently so that they can bring new offerings of their own to market. We want to support small business every step of the way as they grow and evolve.”

The four new cards include the BMO Rewards Business Mastercard, the BMO CashBack Business Mastercard, the BMO Air Miles Business Mastercard, and the BMO Air Miles No-Fee Business Mastercard.

In its release, BMO cited statistics about small businesses in Canada, including the estimate that there are 1.14 million SMBs in the country that account for 97.9 percent of employers. Small businesses also account for 70.5 percent of the private labor force, the FI said.

In 2016 BMO announced enhancements to its Mastercard commercial card products, adding purchase authentication capabilities via biometric technology. In an interview with CNBC at the time, vice president and head of North American corporate card products Steve Pedersen said corporate customers were requesting such a service.

“In an industry we have to go this way,” the executive stated. “Our customers are expecting it of us, and it’s important for us as an industry to show innovation.”