The new enhancements allow customers to receive comprehensive context around stock activity, including previous close, timing of price movements, trade volume, last trade and the trading range, says the bank. Before, customers received single line information on stock prices and changes to the prices.

The bank is also offering users the opportunity to subscribe to personalised news content from Reuters and Canadian Press across a range of subjects, including countries, sports, industries, resources and politics.

"Bank of Montreal was the first to launch wireless financial services in North America," says Mark Dickelman, vice-President of m-commerce and wireless for Bank of Montreal. "Our objective is to continue to develop new and substantive enhancements to this offering."

The BMO Wireless service includes stock trading through BMO InvestorLine direct brokerage, access to account balances and transaction details, funds transfer, bill payment, stock, mutual fund and index quotes as well as English and French newswire stories from Canadian Press and Reuters, weather reports and daily horoscopes.

In an effort to improve performance and reliability, the bank has instituted an operating platform upgrade to Sun Microsystems' Unix-based Solaris 0perating environment. BMO has also added support for new devices and protocols, including the new generation of phones enabled by Wireless Mark-up Language (WML), a common standard used by mobile devices for content delivery.

Over the past year, BMO has entered into agreements with six new carriers, extending its service to more than 40 mobile devices, including the popular RIM pager.