The Bank of Montreal's CFO Tayfun Tuzun is retiring as of early 2026, adding to the bank's recent changes to its executive ranks.Carlos Osorio/Reuters
Bank of Montreal’s BMO-T chief financial officer is retiring after five years with the lender, adding to BMO’s recent leadership changes, including a new senior executive in its U.S. operation and new co-heads for its Canadian personal and commercial banking units.
Tayfun Tuzun, the bank’s current CFO who was hired in 2020, is retiring as of early 2026, but will remain on the board of BMO’s U.S. subsidiary. Rahul Nalgirkar, who joined BMO three years ago as CFO of the bank’s American arm, as well as of its commercial banking businesses in Canada and the U.S., will take over as CFO of the entire bank.
Mr. Tuzun’s departure follows executive changes announced in June that added Aron Levine, a former Bank of America executive, as the head of BMO’s personal and business banking, commercial banking and wealth management businesses in the U.S.
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At the same time, BMO announced the retirement of Ernie Johannson, who previously ran personal and business banking for North America, and moved Nadim Hirji, the former head of commercial banking, into the role of vice-chair. In Canada, personal and commercial banking are now co-run by Sharon Haward-Laird and Mat Mehrotra.
The executive shakeup comes at the eight-year mark for chief executive officer Darryl White, meaning BMO now has a new slate of succession candidates. It also follows a rough patch for BMO’s financial and stock market performance, during which the bank was plagued by loan quality concerns in the U.S. after buying Bank of the West in California.
However, BMO isn’t the only bank to shake up its executive ranks this year. In the past six months, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce CM-T named a new CEO; Bank of Nova Scotia BNS-T hired a new chief operating officer for its Canadian banking unit; and Toronto-Dominion Bank TD-T hired an outsider as COO for the entire bank and also shook up its legal department with a new general counsel.
Mr. Tuzun, BMO’s outgoing CFO, was hired in 2020 from Ohio-based Fifth Third Bancorp – one of the largest lenders in the Midwestern U.S. and a direct competitor to BMO’s U.S. arm, which is based in Chicago. His replacement, Mr. Nalgirkar, was also hired from Fifth Third.
Fifth Third alumni now have an unusually deep reach into Canadian banking, considering Royal Bank of Canada RY-T hired Fifth Third’s former CEO and executive chair, Greg Carmichael, as executive chair of RBC’s U.S.-based private bank, City National, in 2023.
Despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s global trade war, Canada’s Big Six banks have delivered encouraging financial results so far this year, and their share prices have all climbed higher.
Amid the enthusiasm, BMO’s stock has been one of the sector’s top performers as investors regain their confidence in its credit outlook. Since January, BMO’s shares have jumped 28 per cent, while Big Six stocks have climbed 23 per cent higher, on average.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index is up 19 per cent this year.