O’Kane absorbs client services operations at BMO RDF

By Daniel Moher

On May 1, Raymond O’Kane was appointed to managing director and head of National Retail Dealer Finance (RDF) at Bank of Montreal. Prior to his appointment, O’Kane was managing the national sales force as well as the strategy and delivery team at BMO RDF.

While O’Kane had been commonly known as the face of the auto retail finance division to the Canadian automotive dealer body, he will now carry responsibility for RDF’s national service operations for dealerships across the country. He has been actively involved in BMO automotive business for over 12 years and is well known within the industry.

“This consolidation of responsibility will allow our team to streamline services, optimize our allocation of resources, and allow for more consistency with full end to end oversight of the dealer experience,” he said.

While he noted that the auto industry is unique and always changing, he said the principles behind the conduction of business remain stagnant.

“My goal in this new position is to apply these traditional and underlying principles to new technologies, new product and promotion strategies, and innovative services.”

With the consolidation of services, products, and promotions under the same leadership, O’Kane said BMO can provide more of a “one-stop service shop” to dealers by coordinating different teams to specific regions, and moreover, to specific dealers.

“Dealers want to be conducting business with the same retail credit staff over the long-run, not only because it’s a familiar face, but because they can analyze the individual needs of stores in real time.”

He said BMO’s end goal is to provide all dealerships across Canada with service support teams who know the ins and outs of every dealership in Canada as a means to earn more and more of their business.