Originally Posted by
Vasco
It is silly marketing. Toronto-Dominion Bank became TD; Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce became CIBC; and so Bank of Montreal thought they would become BMO. Oh and the Royal Bank calls itself RBC.
Silly marketing? I have always figured it's a conscious effort to gain more American customers by making it less obvious they are not an American company. Banks are not alone in this practice, BP and BOC are other examples that come to mind.