Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. My name is Andrew Auerbach. I'm responsible for distribution in our personal and commercial business in Canada, so that would be the 940 branches in Canada as well as our commercial bank, and the 12,000 employees on our teams. I'm pleased to join my counterparts at today's hearing and to provide BMO's perspective and experience on the issue of sales practices. What we've all heard in recent news reports is disappointing. We do take this matter very seriously. The issues expressed are not consistent with our approach of delivering a great customer experience. We strongly believe that our practices are oriented towards helping our customers.
BMO's vision is to be the bank that defines great customer experience. We pursue this vision by focusing on building and strengthening our long-term relationship with each of our customers. Fundamental to these relationships is listening closely to our customers, making sure that we understand their needs, and that we see things from their perspective so that we can help them manage their financial needs now and in the future. Frankly, we can't do that if we are selling products and services that our customers don't need. That's not the right thing for our customers, and it's not the right thing for our employees. Instead we believe that we're in the business of helping our customers choose products and services. The question of whether a product or a service is right is measured not by a sales goal but by our promise that we're here to help.
At BMO we know that the only way to deliver on customer promise is by ensuring that our employees are fully engaged and motivated. We are people first and bankers second. We strive to put others first through listening and understanding one another's perspectives. We ensure that our employees have the knowledge, the skills, and the support required to deliver a great customer experience. It is also important, though, to have a robust set of measures and governance in place to make sure that what we believe is happening in our customer interactions is, in fact, happening. To that end, we have created a culture that is anchored on our customer experience vision and that reinforces that we must always do the right thing. Our employee goals and how we evaluate performance are balanced between the “what” and the “how”: what we are trying to achieve and how we achieve our goals by ensuring that our approach is always focused on our customer and their unique needs. This approach to goal setting is also reflected in a number of criteria including customer experience, risk management, demonstrating our values, and, of course, performance.
We have systems and monitoring in place to ensure that our sales are driven by customer need and usage. We have a defined process for customers to raise and escalate concerns including the involvement of independent bodies. Each concern is investigated and actioned. We also have audits and reviews of our policies and our processes to ensure that we have the proper integrity of our practices in place. The rigour with which we safeguard our policies and our processes reinforces our confidence in the integrity of BMO's practices. As well, we have fostered a culture in which we are all protected from retaliation. Everyone at BMO can voice concerns without fear. Most importantly, we continuously invest in our employees to ensure that they have the knowledge and the skills to help them help our customers.
Mr. Chairman, BMO welcomes the opportunity to be part of this discussion, and I look forward to answering your questions.
Thank you.