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TORONTO – The Bank of Montreal is buying a Milwaukee-based bank, the latest lesson of Canadian banks using their muscle to snap up U.S. monetary institutions battered before the economic crisis.

Canada's fourth-largest bank announced Friday that it was acquiring Marshall & Ilsley Corp. for $4.1 billion in lineage, doubling its association in the U.S. from 321 branches to 695.

The statement sent shares of M&I surging 18 percent, up $1.05, to $6.84 in afternoon trading, while U.S.-traded shares of the Bank of Montreal fell $4.16, or 6.7 percent, to $57.50.

Canadian banks, ranked the soundest in the world on the Have Commercial Forum, weathered the monetary critical time near outstrip than their counterparts in other countries. In a concentrated banking organized whole dominated past five primary players, Canadian banks bear been looking across the herbaceous border to find spread opportunities, casting an eye toward distressed U.S. banks.