Ontario Bank

The Ontario Bank 1868 (Wellington and Scott Streets, Toronto, Canada)

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

First President:

Existed: 1860-1906

Merged into modern-day Bank of Montreal

Ontario Bank was an early bank operating in Ontario, Canada. It began operations in 1857 and was last listed as a member of the Canadian Bankers Association in 1901.

The bank was founded by John Simpson, a resident of Bowmanville, Ontario and a former bank manager for the Bank of Montreal. Simpson later became one of Canada's first senators.

Simpson opened the bank's first branch in Bowmanville in 1857, and by 1868 a limestone and brick head office building had been built in that town. In 1875 the head office was moved to Toronto.

The bank and its 30 branches across the province were absorbed into the Bank of Montreal in the fall of 1906, after its general manager Charles McGill was found to have been speculating in the U.S. stock markets with bank funds and sustained an estimated $1.25 million in losses from ill-timed short sales. McGill was convicted of filing false tax returns and sentenced to a five year prison term early in 1907.

References

• Mayers, Adam. The Ontario Bank's 1906 Collapse. The Toronto Star. 2008-02-19. Retrieved 2008-07-02.
• Charles Peers Davidson "A Compilation Of The Statutes Passed Since Confederation Relating To Banks And Banking, Government And Other Savings Banks, Promissory Notes And Bills," BiblioLife | January 10, 2010
• Anyan, Kevin and Taws, Charles. "Ontario Bank: Bowmanville's Own Bank". Bowmanville: 150 Years 150 Stories, Bowmanville Sesquicentennial Committee, 2008.