A new group has been created in Montreal to help keep financial services firms and jobs in the city and to attract more of both in the future.

The new organization — Finance Montreal, la grappe financière du Québec and dubbed “the Cluster” by participants — is similar to the Toronto Financial Services Alliance, which was set up a couple of years ago with the mandate to attract financial services firms and jobs to Toronto.

Much of the funding for Fi-nance Montreal is already in place. The Province of Quebec has pledged to invest $1 million over five years in the effort, which was first announced in the provincial budget this past March.

The creation of Finance Montreal has been helped along by the International Financial Centre of Montreal, which has successfully encouraged 12 companies to participate in the initiative, with each promising to invest $100,000 over the next two years.

Backers of Finance Montreal include the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Desjardins Group, Standard Life Assurance Co. of Canada, the Montreal Exchange, CGI Group Inc., the Autorité des marchés financiers and several banks.

IFCMontreal, which celebrates its 25th anniversary next year, is already working to attract financial services jobs to the city.

“What is new is the creation of an organization that will be responsible for improving or making sure that Montreal grows as an international financial centre,” says Jacques Girard, IFCMontreal’s CEO, noting that Finance Montreal, which will operate independently of IFCMontreal, has yet to appoint a chairman and executive director.

Although an observer might think Finance Montreal is an effort to try to win back some of the companies and jobs the city lost more than three decades ago, when separation anxiety of the political kind sent banks heading to Toronto, participants say that the reality could not be further from the truth.

“The intent is not to compete with the [Toronto alliance]; it is really to be complementary … and find areas that we can raise the profile worldwide,” says Claude Leblanc, senior vice president with Standard Life and that firm’s representative in Finance Montreal. “Montreal brings a flavour that is a bit different from Toronto, and we just want to promote that.”

For Standard Life, the country’s oldest life insurance company, backing an initiative such as Finance Montreal makes sense. Standard Life has deep roots in the city, employing 1,600 people at its Montreal headquarters and another 400 in the rest of the country.@page_break@Finance Montreal and its sponsoring companies have been meeting only since the Quebec budget announcement, so the group has yet to map out a full-fledged strategy. But Leblanc says the promotion of Montreal is likely to focus on its unique status in Canada when it comes to higher education.

“A key element is Montreal is a big university town — we have four major universities,” he says. “The first step is to work in close collaboration with them to have a stronger connection with the various faculties and the financial services world and to be viewed as the place to be for talent.”

Montreal is also the world’s third-largest aerospace centre, behind Seattle and Toulouse, France. Not only that, but Mon-treal employs approximately 110,000 people in financial services and investment-related jobs. Another 30,000 are similarly employed within the rest of the province.

The Britain-based global financial centres index ranks Montreal 25th on its list of international financial centres. London is ranked No. 1, edging out New York and Hong Kong. Among Canadian cities, Toronto is ranked 12th — behind Frankfurt, Germany, and ahead of Boston — while Vancouver places 21st on the list.

The establishment of Finance Montreal “is a positive initiative for the financial sector in the country,” says Janet Ecker, president of the Toronto alliance. She notes that Canada stands out as just one of three countries — along with the U.S. and China — to place a trio of cities in the GFCI’s top 30.

“Toronto is clearly the financial services capital [of Canada],” Ecker says. “But financial services is a national industry of significant importance, and there are strong financial jobs in Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal — and [Finance Montreal] is just another way to help the industry overall. I think it is a positive initiative for the industry.”

Ecker notes that members of the Toronto alliance had met with Finance Montreal members earlier this year to provide input and advice on the new group’s efforts — similar to the manner in which the International Financial Services London association had provided advice and guidance to the Toronto group when it was in its startup phase.

Although the Toronto alliance has been around since 2001, it was a virtual advocacy organization for most of its existence. However, over the past two years, government and financial services companies have decided to make a more robust and sustained effort to promote the city as the destination for financial services jobs.

“We want to keep what we have,” Ecker says. “These jobs can be anywhere, and there are many jurisdictions and cities after them. These are good jobs — they are good-paying jobs; they are highly skilled jobs.”

Toronto, which is also ranked as a top 10 international banking centre, the Toronto alliance says, employs about 240,000 people directly in financial services jobs and another 300,000 indirectly.

“We will be aggressively selling our story — as I’m sure [Montreal] will be,” Ecker says. “But [Finance Montreal] is a good thing for the country and jobs overall, and certainly for the financial services sector.” IE