Canada’s banking watchdog has fined the Bank of Montreal $4 million after finding the bank wrongly charged fees to more than 100,000 customers over more than a decade.
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada said Bank of Montreal failed to properly disclose monthly account fees and, in some cases, charged fees that should have been waived or discounted. The violations date back to 2010 and continued until 2024. Yes, for those keeping track, that’s 14 years of overcharging customers in fees.
According to the regulator, 101,091 customers were affected. Many of them were part of special banking programs aimed at newcomers to Canada, medical and dental students, Indigenous clients, and customers with certain home financing offers. These customers were told their monthly fees would be waived or reduced, but paperwork provided in branches listed the wrong start date for those discounts.
As a result, customers were charged monthly plan fees they should not have paid.
The agency said BMO also failed to clearly explain when monthly fees would begin between 2022 and 2024, adding to the disclosure problems.
BMO has refunded affected customers just over $3 million, including interest. For money that could not be returned directly to customer accounts, the bank made a charitable donation of about $600,000.
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada said the penalty reflects BMO’s failure to put proper controls in place, even after receiving more than 500 customer complaints about the fees. The regulator said better monitoring could have caught the issue much earlier.
BMO paid the full $4 million penalty in April 2025. Were you affected by these fees? Did you get a refund?
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