Within wealth management, on the other hand, earnings tumbled from C$159 million to C$148 million during the year.

Assets under management and administration grew by C$12 billion, or 1 per cent, from a year ago to C$864 billion, driven by favorable foreign exchange movements, partially offset by market declines, BMO said.

In other first-quarter wealth management highlights, in January the firm rolled out BMO SmartFolio, a digital portfolio management service.

“These results underline the benefits of our business mix, which is well diversified by geography and customer segment,” said Bill Downe, chief executive of BMO Financial Group. “Our combined personal and commercial banking business grew by 12 per cent from last year, driven by strong adjusted results in US personal and commercial banking which was up 29 per cent and Canadian banking which was up 5 per cent. BMO Capital Markets performed well this quarter, with earnings up 18 per cent year over year, while results in BMO Wealth Management reflect market conditions.”