BMO Increases Forecast for Bank Profits

The Globe and Mail, Sinclair Stewart, 18 January 2006Canada's retail bankers may be about to get some relief after seeing their profit margins squeezed by a persistently low level of interest rates over the past three years. BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. analyst Ian de Verteuil predicted in a report yesterday that spread compression is coming to an end, prompting him to increase his profit forecasts by