FCAC announces an administrative monetary penalty paid by the Bank of Montreal
News release
February 2, 2026
Ottawa, Ontario
FCAC applied an administrative monetary penalty of $4 million on the Bank of Montreal (BMO) for violations of consumer provisions in the Bank Act. The violation is described in Summary of Proceeding #4, published today.
A total of 101,091 customers were financially impacted. BMO has issued refunds and redressed interest to impacted customers totalling more than $3 million. For the amount that could not be refunded to accounts, BMO made a charitable donation of more than $600,000.
The violations relate to erroneous charges for monthly plan fees that should have been waived or discounted for certain personal deposit accounts. From 2010 to 2024, BMO failed to disclose all charges applicable to these accounts. Additionally, between 2022 and 2024, BMO failed to clearly disclose information regarding when monthly plan fees would begin.
Accurate disclosure is a foundational element of the consumer protection provisions of the Bank Act. For consumers to make informed financial decisions, they must be provided information that is accurate and, at a minimum, meets legal requirements.
All federally regulated financial institutions are expected to review the findings of FCAC Decisions and Summaries of Proceedings and apply them to their own practices, as appropriate, in an effort to achieve the highest levels of compliance with protections for financial consumers.
Quick facts
-
The role of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) is to protect financial consumers by supervising the compliance of federally-regulated entities, including banks, with their legislative obligations, codes of conduct and public commitments and by strengthening the financial literacy of Canadians.
-
FCAC’s Supervision Framework explains the tools that FCAC employs to conduct its supervision and enforcement work.
-
A regulated entity is deemed to have committed a violation if it pays the penalty. In such instances, FCAC publishes a Summary of Proceeding. A Summary of Proceeding includes the nature of the violation, the name of the regulated entity that committed the violation and the amount of the penalty.
-
FCAC’s Adjudicative Process Guidelines describe the process for examining violations of legislative obligations, and non-compliance of codes of conduct and public commitments.
Associated links
Contacts
Media Relations
Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
613-941-4168
Stay connected
X (formerly Twitter) | Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube
Search for related information by keyword: Banking | Consumer protection | Financial Consumer Agency of Canada | Canada | Money and finances | general public | news releases