BMO Bank of Montreal plans move to green call centre

The bank will transfer its direct banking, risk collections and card and retail payment services call centre groups, along with support staff, to the 10 story, 250,000 square feet building which will have a capacity of 1200 work stations.

Real estate development firm First Gulf Corporation and Sun Life Financial are investing $75 million in the facility, which BMO has signed a lease for.

Construction is planned to be completed by the end of 2010 with BMO moving in over 2011 and the first half of 2012.

The move will also allow BMO to relocate its card and retail payment services headquarter functions to the bank's Bay at Bloor Street offices to work alongside colleagues with similar roles in the commercial division.

The building will be constructed to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (Leed) standards and will include energy-efficient heating and cooling, including energy recovery from exhaust air.

"The BMO contact centre is going to be a great facility and we'll be able to work directly with First Gulf and Sun Life to design a space that meets all of our requirements," says Michael Thornburrow, SVP, corporate real estate and sourcing, BMO Financial Group. "Bringing our contact centre staff together under one roof will have the additional benefit of enhancing their ability to work together to quickly and effectively attend to our customers' needs."

BMO isn't the only bank looking to invest in green buildings; last month Citi opened a data centre in Georgetown, Texas which has been awarded Leed gold certification by the US Green Building Council.

In June HSBC completed the installation of 422 solar panels on the roof of its Canary Wharf headquarters in London and is also implementing a real estate power metering system from t-mac Technologies in a bid to reduce the energy consumption of its retail units by up to 20%.