The Bank Where People Make the Difference
Toronto Dominion Bank
Tagline
Net Worth
$121,230,000,000
Started in (City)
Toronto
Started in (Country)
Canada
Incorporation Date
01st December, 1955
Bankruptcy Date
-
Founders
- Merger of the Bank of Toronto and The Dominion Bank
About
The Toronto-Dominion Bank is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Commonly known as TD and operating as a TD Bank Group. The Bank of Toronto was founded in 1855 by a group of millers and merchants. Rooted in Canada’s emerging grain industry, the new bank provided essential financial services. As the bank’s business grew, a provincial branch network was built and expanded outside Ontario, to Montreal in 1860. In 2017, according to the Standard & Poor’s, the TD Bank Group was the largest bank in Canada by total assets, the second-largest by market capitalization, a top-10 bank in North America, and the 26th largest bank in the world. In 2019, it was designated a global systemically important bank by the Financial Stability Board. The bank and its subsidiaries have over 89,000 employees and over 26 million clients worldwide. In Canada, the bank operates as TD Canada Trust and serves more than 11 million customers at over 1,091 branches.
Beginning
The predecessors of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, the Bank of Toronto, and The Dominion Bank were established in the mid 19th century, the former in 1855 and the latter in 1869. In 1954, an agreement was reached between the Bank of Toronto and The Dominion Bank to merge the two financial institutions. The merger was later accepted by the Canadian Minister of Finance on 1 November 1954, and was made official on 1 February 1955. The new institution adopted the name Toronto-Dominion Bank. In 1967, TD Bank opened its new head office, the Toronto-Dominion Centre in downtown Toronto. In the next year, the bank entered into a partnership with Chargex (later known as Visa Inc.). The TD Bank shield logo was unveiled to the public near the end of the decade, in 1969. In 1976, TD Bank piloted its first automated teller machine (ATM), the TD 360, which was renamed The Green Machine, a name it continues to carry. In 1987, Toronto Dominion Securities Inc. was established by the bank.TD Bank saw growth in the 1990s, with the acquisition of several financial assets including the commercial branches of Standard Chartered Bank of Canada. In 1992, the bank acquired the assets and branches of Central Guaranty Trust, as well as Waterhouse Investor Services in 1996. In 1992, TD Bank and G4S Cash Solutions, a subsidiary of British security services company G4S plc, began a pilot project in Toronto that developed into a nationwide partnership in 1997. G4S Cash Solutions secured the contract to transport cash and provide first-line maintenance for the bank's ATMs – both cash dispensing and deposit pick up units."
Road to Success
The Bank made milestone acquisitions in the 1990s. In October of 1992, an agreement was struck to purchase the positive assets of Central Guaranty Trust (the company itself was not purchased). The acquisition was completed on December 31, 1992. In 1996 the New York-based Waterhouse Investor Services was purchased, a move that doubled the size of the TD’s discount brokerage overnight. In 2000, TD purchased Canada Trust. Canada Trust was recognized for its unparalleled customer service, including its precedent-setting extended hours of “8 to 8 six days straight” in its branches, which was launched in 1976. True to its commitment to build for the long-term, TD celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2005 by setting its sights on expanding its North American platform. It acquired 51% of TD Bank North, which Forbes Magazine had dubbed the "best-managed bank in America". A year later, in 2006, TD merged its U.S. based TD Waterhouse discount brokerage operations with TD Ameritrade, creating a top three discount broker in North America. In 2007, TD acquired the remaining shares of TD Bank North and announced its intention to acquire Commerce Bancorp. Commerce had begun as a single branch in Marlton, New Jersey, in 1973 and had expanded into New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and South Florida. Commerce had earned its tagline "America’s Most Convenient Bank" in 1994 when it introduced extended branch hours, seven days a week, 361 days a year. With the approval of the Commerce acquisition in 2008, TD became one of the seven largest banks in the branch network in North America. The operations of Commerce and TD Bank north were merged under the new brand name TD Bank, with the commitment to maintain Commerce’s positioning as "America’s Most Convenient Bank".
Challenges
In the year 2010, a trader at Toronto Dominion Bank in the UK was fined £750,000 by the Financial Services Authority for intentionally mismarking his trading positions. News outlets reported the bank's policy regarding ordinary Iranian-Canadian citizens, July 10, 2012. Some one hundred personal bank accounts had been closed to this date, citing the recent ambiguous Special Economic Measure Regulation of the Canadian government. A family in Vancouver was forced to refinance a $250,000 house mortgage in 60 days to avoid foreclosure. A TD Bank document became the focus of a 2012 contempt hearing in Miami federal court. In a civil lawsuit against TD Bank, a jury found the bank liable for aiding alleged Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein's $1.4 billion fraud. On March 10,2017 due to the controversies, the bank's stock lost 5.55% of its value declining by $3.88 (Cdn) per share to close at $66.00 (Cdn).
Failures
In 2015, the Canadian news website the Halifax Examiner reported that a Political action committee (PAC) established by TD Bank had donated over dollar 50,000 to the campaigns of anti-LGBT rights politicians in the United States. The article suggested that this was problematic given TD Bank’s status as a sponsor of 41 LGBT Pride events across North America; TD Bank did not comment. In response to this article, on October 6, 2015, a motion was brought at the Annual General Meeting of Halifax Pride to sever ties with TD Bank if it did not provide a satisfactory response to the concerns; the motion was ultimately defeated. On March 10, 2017, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) news program Go Public reported that TD Bank employees had admitted that, under pressure to achieve sales targets, they had increased customers’ lines of credit, overdraft amounts, and Visa credit limits without advising them which is against the law. One TD financial adviser says she "invested clients’ savings into funds which were not suitable, because of the sales revenue pressure". Another admitted downplaying the risk of products saying: "I was forced to lie to customers, just to meet the sales revenue targets."
Achievements
- Named one of Canada
- Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (7th year in a row)
- TD named one of Canada
- TD Bank included among Hispanic Network Magazine’s Best of the Best 2020 Top Financial & Banking Companies
- Recognized as one of the long-term digital winners in Autonomous Research
Subsidies
- TD Canada Trust
- TD Bank, N.A.
- TD Securities
- TD Auto Finance
- Layer 6 Inc.
CEOs
- Edmund Clark
- Bharath Masrani