BMO Bank is closing its branch on Main Street in downtown Toledo on Oct. 30. It’s been the home of a series of banks since the 1950s. (Google Earth screenshot)By Lincoln Chronicle staff
BMO Financial Group is closing its bank branches in Toledo and Lincoln City next month and asking customers to move their accounts to its main coastal office in Newport.
The branches will close Oct. 30.
BMO, which is headquartered in Chicago and Montreal, sold 138 of its 973 branches in 11 U.S. states to First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. on Sept. 4. But only one of those branches – in the eastern Oregon community of Ontario – was in Oregon.
The BMO closure of its branch on Main Street in downtown in Toledo will leave that community with one standalone bank branch – Oregon Coast Bank, which is based in Newport. It will also create a big vacancy on Main Street in a downtown trying to revitalize itself.
In Lincoln City there will be five branches of other banks and two credit unions.
In a statement to Lincoln Chronicle, the head of BMO’s public relations in Chicago said the bank “continuously assess our operations, including our financial center network, to adapt to changing client preferences and how they choose to bank.”
“These decisions are carefully considered,” Scott Doll said in an emailed statement. “While the location is changing, clients will continue to receive the service and support they expect from BMO. This transition will have no impact on clients’ accounts. Accounts will automatically transfer to the Newport financial center, with no action required by clients.”
Doll did not address questions about the number of employees affected.
The BMO branch in Toledo started in the 1950s as the locally owned National Security Bank, which later established branches in Newport, Lincoln City, Yachats and Siletz. National Security was acquired by West One Bancorp of Idaho in 1994; BMO acquired West One in 2023.
Some of the founders and personnel from National Security Bank went on to form Oregon Coast Bank in 2001.
According to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. records, as of September BMO’s Toledo branch had $27 million in deposits, Lincoln City $25 million and its Newport branch $39 million.
Whenever a company makes a statement such as the one above : “continuously assess our operations, including our financial center network, to adapt to changing client preferences and how they choose to bank,” it’s almost always a complete line of nonsense.
I think it’s safe to say that not one single client of this bank would willingly choose to drive the ( almost ) 25 miles from Lincoln City to Newport just so they can go to their bank.
Agree, I will be closing my BMO bank accounts by the end of October. I will not drive to Newport from Lincoln City to do any banking.