Exhibits
The Corporate Archives curates physical and digital exhibits from our collections to tell BMO’s story over the years. Our aim is to provide a better understanding of the defining moments in our history.
Providing services to the Vancouver Chinatown Community
From the moment we became Canada’s first bank, Bank of Montreal has been intertwined with communities like Vancouver’s Chinatown. We aim to do the right thing in the communities our customers and employees call home. Explore this exhibit showing our 100+ years old historic relationship with the Vancouver Chinatown community.
Vancouver Chinatown’s First National Bank
When Bank of Montreal purchased the Merchants Bank of Canada in 1922, which included the Vancouver Chinatown branch, the head tax was still in effect. While other national banks weren’t doing business in the neighbourhood, after the acquisition Bank of Montreal retained the branch and the Merchants Bank’s Chinese employees, such as Harry Won Cumyow.
The simple act of opening a national bank branch and hiring community members to work there was revolutionary at the time. From our founding, the bank has been committed to becoming part of the communities where we offered financial services.
Harry Won Cumyow
Harry Won Cumyow was the first Chinese Canadian employee of a national bank. He began his career at the Merchants Bank in 1918 and became a Bank of Montreal employee when Merchant’s was acquired by Bank of Montreal in 1922. Harry retired in 1956.
The Cumyow family lays claim to many important civil rights firsts. Harry’s father, Won Alexander Cumyow was the first native-born Chinese Canadian and the only Chinese person to cast a vote both before and after disenfranchisement laws denied Chinese Canadians the right to vote from 1872 to 1947.
Thomas Mah
Thomas Kwock Toi Mah left his first year of Engineering at UBC in 1946 to take a job at Bank of Montreal. He gradually worked his way up to assistant manager at the Main and Hastings Branch in 1961 and, in 1966, became Canada’s first Chinese bank manager at the Pender and Columbia branch, in the heart of Chinatown.
Mah was active in the Chinese community and highly trusted and respected in his position at the bank, as well as in Chinatown. After his retirement from the bank, he was asked to travel to the People’s Republic of China in 1982 to open the first representative office for BMO in Beijing.
Service in Chinese
For those who spoke Chinese as their first language, it was intimidating to turn their hard-earned money over to people who spoke only English. Encountering Chinatown community members behind the counter – who were able to speak their language and even sign their name using Chinese characters – went a long way in building long-term relationships.
Advertising & branding
As Chinatown’s first national bank, BMO worked hard to be part of the community. Advertisements included Chinese slogans and promotional items from the branches included ornate Chinese calendars that date back to the 1920s.
Thomas Mah, Canada’s first Chinese-Canadian branch manager, mentions in his memoirs that people would line up for these calendars on the day they were released. “Apparently,” he recalls, “Bank of Montreal gave out the best calendars and we continued this tradition for many years until the Bank phased out the practice.”
Changing faces
In 2017, the historic Vancouver Chinatown branch was sold to the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation and is now the Chinatown Storytelling Centre. The offer to buy the branch might not have been the highest bid, but when BMO accepted, it reaffirmed the longstanding relationship between Chinatown’s first bank and the community. The deal was struck, and BMO and Vancouver’s Chinatown continue their relationship of mutual respect.