A.J. Nesbitt of Montreal and P.A. Thomson of Hamilton, Ontario established Nesbitt Thomson in 1912. After World War II, Nesbitt Thomson expanded its operations to include chemicals, salt, steel, ships, farm machinery, retail stores, and a transcontinental natural gas pipeline. Burns Fry is created from the merger of Burns Bros. and Denton and Fry Mills Spence in 1976. In 1987 Bank of Montreal acquires Nesbitt Thomson. In 1994 Nesbitt Thomson and Burns Fry merge to form Nesbitt Burns. In 1999 the merger of the corporate banking arm of Harris Bank, BMO Financial Group's Chicago-based subsidiary, and the U.S. investment banking capabilities of Nesbitt Burns, creates Harris Nesbitt. The new firm focuses on the middle market of the U.S. Midwest.
In 2000 the "BMO" brand was added to the Nesbitt Burns name in order to link the firm's corporate identity with BMO Financial Group. In 2003 BMO Financial Group acquired Gerard Klauer Mattison, providing Harris Nesbitt with a U.S.-based equity research and institutional sales and trading platform. GKM was founded in 1989 in New York as a boutique equity research and investment banking firm serving the institutional marketplace. In 2006 BMO Capital Markets was launched when BMO Financial Group's Canadian, U.S. and international wholesale banking capabilities were merged. In 2016 BMO Financial Group acquired the business of Greene Holcomb Fisher, a boutique M&A advisory firm based in Minneapolis.
2019 – SEC fines BMO Capital Markets
In August 2019 the US Securities and Exchange Commission fined BMO Capital Markets $3.9 million over its improper handling of “pre-released” American Depositary Receipts. According to the SEC, BMO Capital obtained pre-released ADRs when they should have known that the pre-release transactions were not backed by foreign shares, and improperly obtained pre-released ADRs indirectly from other broker-dealers. Sanjay Wadhwa, Senior Associate Director for Enforcement in the SEC's New York Regional Office said "The SEC continues to hold accountable parties that abused the ADR markets over an extended period of time. U.S. investors who invest in foreign companies through ADRs have a right to expect that market professionals aren't gaming the system."
