M&I Bank to get a new name this summer

The Marshall & Ilsley Corp. name will soon be history.

The troubled Milwaukee-based bank, which operates under the name M&I Bank and is Minnesota's fourth-largest bank by deposits, will be renamed BMO Harris Bank this summer, after Bank of Montreal (BMO) completes its $4.1 billion acquisition of M&I.

Toronto-based Bank of Montreal said the new name will go into effect as soon as the acquisition closes in several months. However, it could take up to 18 months for BMO's name to appear outside M&I's branch offices.

The name change will mark the end of a regional bank founded in 1847 that grew aggressively through acquisitions but got into trouble by making too many loans tied to residential real estate.

Hurt by housing bust

M&I also made an ill-timed expansion into Arizona and Florida, two markets hard-hit by the housing bust. The bank has written off hundreds of millions of dollars in bad loans over the past two years.

M&I Bank lost $133 million in the fourth quarter, its ninth consecutive quarter of losses. The bank's stock price, which traded as high as $39.50 a share in April 2007, plunged to a mere $4.66 a share in November of last year.

Bank of Montreal, Canada's fourth-largest and oldest bank, said in a securities filing Tuesday that it tested the BMO name with customers in a number of markets, including Milwaukee and Chicago.

"In all areas and with all groups, BMO Harris Bank tested well," the bank said. "It conveys to our customers that the full resources of BMO Financial Group will be available to them."

M&I has 27 branches in Minnesota, 188 in Wisconsin, and others in Arizona, Illinois, Kansas, Florida and Indiana. Mark Furlong, M&I's chief executive officer and chairman, will become president and CEO of BMO Harris Bank.

After the deal closes, BMO Harris Bank will be the 15th-largest commercial bank by assets in the United States.