The Toronto-Dominion Bank (French: Banque Toronto-Dominion) is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Commonly known as TD and operating as TD Bank Group (French: Groupe Banque TD), the bank was created on February 1, 1955 through the merger of the Bank of Toronto and The Dominion Bank, which were founded in 1855 and 1869, respectively. TD's Institution Number (or bank number) is 004. They have the highest mortgage prime rate in the market, higher than most other banks in Canada.
TD Bank Group is the largest bank in Canada by total assets, second largest by market capitalization, and a top-10 bank in North America. Globally, it ranks as the 26th largest bank in the world, according to Standard & Poor's.
The bank and its subsidiaries have over 85,000 employees and over 22 million clients worldwide. In Canada, the bank operates as TD Canada Trust and serves more than 11 million customers at over 1,150 branches. In the United States, the company operates as TD Bank (the initials are used officially for all U.S. operations). The U.S. subsidiary was created through the merger of TD Banknorth and Commerce Bank, and serves more than 6.5 million customers with a network of more than 1,300 branches in the eastern United States.
The company is ranked at number 66 on the Forbes Global 2000 2015 listing. In October 2008, the company was named in the listings of Canada's Top 100 Employers in Maclean's and Greater Toronto's Top Employers by the Toronto Star. Furthermore, in 2008, 2011, 2013 and 2014 it was named one of Canada's top 10 employers by the Financial Post.
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History
The origins of the Toronto-Dominion Bank lie in the efforts of a group of businessmen in the Province of Canada West (as Ontario was called between 1840 and 1867), involved in the buying, milling and marketing of grain. They were determined to create a financial institution to meet their specific needs in banking, insurance and commodities exchange. The group submitted its first petition for the incorporation of the Millers, Merchants and Farmers Bank of Canada West in 1854 to the legislature of the province of Canada, which rejected the request. However, on March 18, 1855, their application for a charter for the Bank of Toronto, with an authorized capital of £500,000, was granted.
In July 1856, the Bank of Toronto opened its offices at 78 Church Street, Toronto, with a staff of three and immediately began development of a provincial network of branches. In 1860, it opened its first branch outside of Ontario, in Montreal, Quebec.
The Bank of Toronto established itself as an efficient, profitable, but essentially conservative bank through the 19th century. It maintained a very high reserve against its capital and enjoyed the highest share price of any bank in Canada. Growth was very slow and deliberate with a few new branches opened in emerging regional centres. Core customers remained farmers, merchants, and processors of farm products (millers, brewers, distillers).
In 1871, a group of entrepreneurs and professionals under the leadership of James Austin launched the Dominion Bank to join the Bank of Toronto in the Ontario market. They were dedicated to creating a new institution "conducive to the general prosperity of that section of the country." Like the Bank of Toronto, the Dominion Bank was a cautious institution, "selecting its customers carefully, serving them well, and duly prospering with them" (in the words of the official history). It also created a network of branches, and in 1872 became the first Canadian bank to have two branches in one city-Toronto.
With the maturing of the Canadian economy and the opening of northern Ontario and the West in the 1880s and 1890s, the banks became more aggressive in loans to resource industries, utilities, and manufacturing. In 1897, the Dominion Bank opened its first western branch in Winnipeg and two years later the Bank of Toronto opened a branch in the British Columbia mining town of Rossland. In the first decade of the twentieth century, the banks rapidly expanded their branch networks in central Canada and across the west.
To mark their rise as significant national institutions, the Dominion Bank moved into a large new head office building at the corner of King and Yonge Streets in Toronto in 1879 and the Toronto Bank followed with another landmark head office at King and Bay Street in 1913.
World War I brought new challenges for the two banks when they were called upon to finance war expenditures and to support the innovation of war bonds marketed to the general public. Half the staff of the two banks served in the armed forces.
Except for some contraction in the western provinces due to drought, the decade following the war was one of expansion and increasing profitability due to resource development and industrial expansion. Both banks weathered the storm of depression in the 1930s without great difficulty, despite a decline in earnings. Like all Canadian banks, they endured criticism of their credit policies and resisted the creation of a central bank to control the money supply and advise on fiscal policy. Ultimately the Bank of Canada was established in 1934 and by 1949, private banks were ordered to remove their currency from circulation.
The coming of World War II involved the banks, once again, in the marketing of war bonds and in participation in the control of foreign exchange, rationing, and other financial war measures. Approximately 500 staff, or almost half the total, entered the armed forces.
The Bank of Toronto and Dominion Bank emerged from the war in 1945 stronger than ever, with assets more than doubled since 1939. With the post-war boom they became more active in business lending and in the penetration of new markets. However, they quickly realized that the costs of expansion and competition with much larger rivals made their objectives difficult to realize. Neither bank had engaged in acquisitions or mergers in order to grow, but both determined that a union with a bank of equal size would place them in a much stronger position to take advantage of the opportunities of the post-war economy.
In 1954, negotiations began between the Bank of Toronto and the Dominion Bank, and by the end of the year an amalgamation agreement was reached. In their brief to the Minister of Finance the banks stated: "It is more burdensome for a small bank to keep pace with the development of our country than for a large bank, with the result that the effective growth and comparative influence of smaller banks will probably in the future decline in comparison with that of the larger banks."
Canada's Minister of Finance announced November 1, 1954, that he would accept the amalgamation and shareholders were asked for their approval. This was forthcoming in December and on February 1, 1955, the Bank of Toronto and the Dominion Bank became the Toronto-Dominion Bank.
The first years of the new bank were dedicated to the demands of amalgamating the two predecessors, institutions of roughly equal size, but with different strengths and unique corporate cultures. The new institution combined head office functions, consolidated branches, and established a new regional organization. An aggressive program of branch modernization and expansion extended TD's presence in its traditional markets and took it into new territory in the Maritime provinces and on the natural resource frontier. The new bank established its identity through an active public relations campaign focused on customer service - "The Best in Banking Service", the bank's first slogan evolved into the highly successful "The Bank Where People Make the Difference".
The competitive banking environment, and the need for effective integration of two administrations, led the bank to re-assess and modernize business practices and methods through the second half of the 1950s. Management streamlined procedures, introduced new technology, and emphasized the human resources function as the bank placed increased weight on customer service and product knowledge.
The bank's emergence as a forward-looking institution was highlighted by the announcement in 1962 that it would have a new and very high-profile head office in downtown Toronto. The Toronto-Dominion Centre, designed by Mies van der Rohe, the leading architect of the day, would include the tallest building in Canada. It would revolutionize both the skyline of Toronto and the public perception of TD.
By the 1960s, the bank solidified its domestic base and established its credentials as a major institution. It began to look beyond its traditional spheres of operation and to explore the international scene and opportunities, domestic and foreign, for large-scale project financing. It developed a network of U.S. representative offices, partnerships with global merchant banks and venture capital operations. Heralding a new commitment to independent and syndicated project financing, in 1967 the bank undertook the financing of the massive Anvil lead-zinc-silver mining operation in Yukon, the construction of the Rainbow crude oil pipeline in Alberta, and resource development ventures in Ireland.
The bank offered the first debentures in Canadian banking history on May 29, 1967. The Bank Act of 1967 ushered in a period of enormous change on the Canadian financial scene. For the first time, banks were permitted to charge more than six-percent interest on loans, encouraging a new emphasis on personal and specialized consumer loans. More significantly, banks could now make mortgage loans on real estate and the mortgage loan portfolio quickly gained enormous significance.
By the close of the 1960s, the bank's customer base had become more diverse and new products and services were launched almost daily. The Visa card made its appearance (as Chargex) and mutual funds were marketed for the first time. In addition, the options for product and service delivery were greatly expanded thanks to computer and communications technology. An "On-Line Savings" system was introduced in Toronto in 1967 and ten years later the Green Machine appeared as the first "full-service" automatic teller machine (ATM) or ABM (automatic banking machine - the general term within Canadian banking), greatly enhancing the customer service capabilities of the bank.
In 1969, the corporation introduced a new logo and adopted an official "TD green." In the same period, television and radio advertising were utilized for the first time in order to promote the new range of products.
The bank kept in step with the times on other fronts as well. It encouraged women to move into management roles and appointed the first female bank manager in 1968. A decade later, more than 40% of all management trainees were women.
International operations became a major focus of the bank after 1970. It launched new subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, United States, and the Middle East. In 1970, TD became first Canadian bank to make a substantial investment in commercial banking in Hong Kong and by the end of the decade TD's role in international lending and money market trading was supported by operations in almost every corner of the globe.
Following upon the success of the Toronto TD Centre, the bank was active in financing retail and commercial real estate projects across Canada. It was a partner in the Toronto Eaton Centre and participated in such major developments as the Pacific Centre in Vancouver, Edmonton Centre, TD Square in Calgary, and the TD Tower in Halifax.
The bank weathered the economic downturn of the early 1980s, showing consistent revenue increases from 1980 to 1984. By the late 1980s, however, the bank was caught up in the debt crisis in the developing world caused by the recession and the dramatic rise in interest rates. Significant loan losses were reported in 1987 and, while the bank participated actively in debt restructuring initiatives, it also committed itself to more conservative lending practices.
Despite the difficult economic conditions and the negative impact on earnings, the 1980s and early 1990s saw many positive developments. Deregulation began to eliminate the barriers between the various elements of the financial sector, particularly with the Bank Act of 1987. The bank moved into the discount brokerage business in 1984 with the introduction of Green Line Investor Services and less than a decade later launched its full service brokerage, TD Evergreen. In 1987, the company established Toronto Dominion Securities Inc. to provide corporate, treasury and investment banking services to corporate clients. In 1992, the Bank acquired the assets of a major trust company, Central Guaranty Trust and began the operation of TD Bank and Trust.
The 1990s saw TD responding swiftly to the challenges of the Internet and leading the way in e-banking. In 1996, the bank created its web site and launched TD Access: PC, North America's first fully integrated banking and brokerage PC package. In 1998, TD introduced Web Access and within a year made e-banking services available to a growing number of customers internationally. By the 21st century, the bank had positioned itself as a multi-channel e-commerce company.
Also in 1998, the Toronto-Dominion Bank proposed to merge with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, at the same time as the Bank of Montreal proposed to amalgamate with the Royal Bank of Canada. After examination of both mergers by the Competition Bureau of Canada, Paul Martin, then Finance Minister, ultimately rejected them.
The need to build TD into a major player in world financial markets prompted the Bank to acquire Waterhouse Investor Services, Inc. in 1996 (and in a stroke more than double its size as a discount broker). TD completed the $8 billion purchase of Canada Trust in 1999 and the merger took effect in February 2000.
Founded by local businessmen in London, Ontario in 1864 as the Huron & Erie Loan and Savings Company Canada Trust could trace an ancestry, through mergers, to 1855 and the establishment of the Canada Permanent Mortgage Corporation by many of the same individuals who established the Bank of Toronto. It also had direct ties to Toronto General Trusts, Canada's first trust company, incorporated in 1872. These institutions were instrumental in providing a pioneering farming community and residents of the growing towns across Canada with mortgage funds and other financial services.
Huron & Erie/Canada Trust established itself as a dynamic mortgage and trust company, first in Ontario, then across Canada through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was consistently aggressive in building its business and marketing its services and became an innovator in customer service. Following its merger with Canada Permanent in 1989, Canada Trust became the country's sixth largest financial institution.
The Canada Trust acquisition gave the bank new momentum, significantly expanded the breadth and depth of the bank's branch coverage, and enhanced TD's customer service commitment. Some have incorrectly referred to the new corporation as TD Canada Trust, though the latter only makes up the largest division. Toronto-Dominion Bank has now been operating under the brand Toronto-Dominion Bank Financial Group (TDBFG).
With the merger of Toronto-Dominion Bank and Canada Trust, the Competition Bureau required the group to sell either its MasterCard or Visa business. Citibank Canada bought TD Canada Trust's MasterCard business and clients. TD began advertising its Visa cards under the corporate brand TD Visa.
In the 1990s, TD acquired U.S. discount brokerage Waterhouse, renaming it "TD Waterhouse." In Canada, TD's own "Green Line" discount brokerage adopted the TD Waterhouse name.
In June 1999, TD sold 42 million shares or 12.4 percent of TD Waterhouse in an initial public offering, with shares priced at C$35.28 or US$24 per share, earning US$1.01 billion. In 2001, with the burst of the Dot-com bubble and lower trade volumes that decreased Waterhouse's share price, TD repurchased that minority stake at US$9 per share for only US$378 million, earning a profit on the privatization. The acquisition was conditional on TD owning at least 90 per cent of Waterhouse's outstanding common shares, and it owned almost 89 percent when the privatization was announced.
In 2003, TD held talks with E-Trade about a merger of its TD Waterhouse component, but negotiations stalled over issues of control. On August 26, 2004, the bank announced a definitive agreement to acquire a 51 per cent interest in Banknorth Group, Inc. (now TD Banknorth), a bank in the U.S. northeast. In 2005, TD announced an agreement to sell seventy-percent of TD Waterhouse (USA) to Ameritrade; TD would retain the remaining thirty percent in the newly created TD Ameritrade.
In late September 2009 and early October 2009, significant technical problems related to the integration of computer systems with the previously purchased Commerce Bank caused chaos for many customers as funds for scheduled direct deposits were not available and account balances were reported incorrectly. The bank's telephone lines experienced extremely high call volume and branches were crowded with customers looking for information.
In April 2010, TD Bank acquired three failed banks in the United States. It acquired certain assets and liabilities of Riverside National Bank of Florida, First Federal Bank of North Florida and AmericanFirst Bank from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
Toronto-Dominion and Bank of America announced an agreement on August 16, 2011, for Toronto-Dominion to acquire MBNA Canada?s credit card business for $8.5 billion.
In June 2012, TD Canada Trust introduced a new enhanced Access Card with the new Visa Debit /Interac Flash Access Card which will allow customers to use it via phone/online and internationally through the Visa network.
Maps Toronto-Dominion Bank
Operations
The bank's headquarters is at the Toronto-Dominion Centre at King Street and Bay Street in Toronto, Ontario. The black skyscrapers were designed by the firm of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and were the first of their kind in the city. Opened in 1967, the TD Centre was the inspiration of Al Lambert (1911-2002), the former president and chairman of the bank's board.
The subsidiaries of TD Bank Group (formerly TD Bank Financial Group) include:
- TD Asset Management - institutional investment management
- TD Auto Finance - new and used vehicle financing
- TD Bank, N.A. - U.S. personal and commercial banking (merged entity of Commerce Bancorp, TD Banknorth and TD Bank USA)
- TD Canada Trust - Canadian personal and commercial banking
- TD Commercial Banking - global commercial banking
- TD Insurance Meloche Monnex - insurance products and services, including a division that specializes in Alumni/Professional group rates
- TD Merchant Services - a wholly owned subsidiary providing credit card processing services for merchants such as retailers
- TD Securities - investment banking and capital markets
- TD Wealth - wealth management
- MBNA Canada - co-branded and affinity credit card services
- Symcor - transaction processing (joint venture with Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Montreal)
- TD Direct Investing - investing and trading
Wealth Management offers investors an array of investment products and services. Wealth Management comprises a number of advisory, distribution and asset management businesses, including TD Mutual Funds.
TD Securities is the investment banking arm of TD Bank Group. It is an underwriter of debt and equity securities and strategic advisor to corporations, governments, and institutions worldwide. A key business segment is the trading of fixed income and equity products, currencies, commodities and derivatives in major financial markets around the world. It has offices in 18 cities worldwide with over 3,000 employees. TD Securities is a leading investment dealer in North America, has a strong presence in Europe, and is active in Asia.
Partners in Outsourcing
G4S Cash Solutions
In 1992 G4S Cash Solutions, a subsidiary of British security services company G4S plc, began a pilot project with Toronto-Dominion Bank in metro 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 automated teller machines (ATMs) - both cash dispensing and deposit pick up units." By 2010, G4S Cash Solutions operated 2,577 ATMs, 1,093 branch night deposits, 95 weekly balanced cash dispensers as well as eight cash dispensers for branch tellers and 100 across the pavement services and hosted a discussion on the introduction of polymer banknotes in 2011 with leading Canadian financial institutions.
iGate
Multinational firm, iGate Corp provides support services for TD Bank, as well as Pratt and Whitney Canada among other international clients.
Symcor
Toronto-Dominion Bank formed a partnership with Bank of Montreal (BMO) and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) in 1996, to create Symcor, a private entity that offers transaction services such as item processing, statement processing and cash-management services to major banks and retail and telecommunications companies in Canada. As of 2011 Symcor produces close to 675 million statements and more than two billion pages of customer statements, and processes three billion cheques annually.
Affiliated Computer Services, a subsidiary of Xerox, acquired Symcor's U.S. operations in October 2014.
Mergers and acquisitions
- Bank of Toronto and the Dominion Bank - 1955
- Standard Chartered Bank of Canada Commercial branch - 1990s
- Central Guaranty Trust (acquisition of assets and branches) - 1992
- Waterhouse Investor Services - 1996
- Toronto-Dominion Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce announced merger; however Paul Martin, then Finance Minister, declared the merger void as not in the best interest of Canadians
- Newcrest Capital 2000 for $224 million (75% stock and 25% cash)
- Canada Trust - 2000
- Stafford Trading and Letco Trading - 2002
- Laurentian Bank retail branches (Ontario-BC) - 2003
- Banknorth NA - 2005
- Commerce Bancorp - 2007 (this created TD Bank, N.A. due to naming issues)
- Riverside National Bank of Fort Pierce, Florida - 2010
- The South Financial Group Inc. - 2010 (full transition completed in June 2011)
- Chrysler Financial - April 2011
- MBNA Canada's credit card business - 1 December 2011
Corporate governance
- Bharat Masrani - President and CEO 2014-present
- John M. Thompson - Non-executive chairman 2003-present
- Frank McKenna - Deputy chairman 2006-present
Current members of the board of directors of the company are: William Bennett, Hugh J. Bolton, John Bragg, Amy W. Brinkley, W. Edmund Clark, Colleen Goggins, Henry Ketcham, Brian M. Levitt, Harold MacKay, Karen E. Maidment, Irene R. Miller, Nadir H. Mohamed, Wilbur Prezzano, Helen Sinclair, and John Thompson.
Edmund Clark retired October 31, 2014, and was replaced by Bharat Masrani, who was previously President of TD U.S. Masrani will transition as TD Bank Group COO in 2013 and assume role as CEO when Clark retires.
The title of Toronto-Dominion Bank's top executive has changed over the years. Initially it was styled as chairman. Later, it became chief executive officer and one often carried additional responsibilities as chairman of the board, while the second-in-command was the President. After the merger of the Toronto-Dominion Bank and Canada Trust, while Charles Baillie was chairman and chief executive officer of the combined entity, Clark was appointed President and chief operating officer which solidified him as the eventual successor to Baillie. Upon Baillie's retirement, Clark became the President and chief executive officer, as the bank decided to appoint John M. Thompson as non-executive chairman.
Past presidents:
- A. C. Ashforth, 1955-1960
- Allen T. Lambert, 1960-1972
- Richard M. Thomson, 1972-1978
- Allan J. Boyle, 1978-1981
- Robert W. Korthals, 1981-1995
- A. Charles Baillie, 1995-2000
- W. Edmund Clark, 2000-2014
Past Chairmen
- Byron S. Vanstone, 1955-1956
- A. C. Ashforth, 1956-1961
- Allen T. Lambert, 1961-1978
- Richard M. Thomson, 1978-1998
- A. Charles Baillie, 1998-2003
Past top executives:
- Herbert S. White, Executive Chairman (1960s-1970s)
- Allen T. Lambert (1960-1972), Chairman and President
- Richard M. Thomson (1972-1978), Chairman and CEO
- Robert W. Korthals (????-1995)
- A. Charles Baillie (1995-2002), Chairman and CEO
- W. Edmund Clark, President and COO (2000-2002)
Membership
TDBFG is a member of the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) and registered member with the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC), a Government of Canada agency insuring deposits at all of Canada's chartered banks. It is also a member of:
- Interac
- NYCE ATM network
- Plus Network for VISA cards
- VISA International
- Canadian Investor Protection Fund
Sponsorships
The Toronto-Dominion Bank and its subsidiaries own the naming rights to the following venues:
- TD Ameritrade Park Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska, United States
- TD Arena in Charleston, South Carolina, United States
- TD Bank Arts Centre in Gloucester County, New Jersey, United States
- TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater, New Jersey, United States
- TD Bank Sports Center in Hamden, Connecticut, United States
- TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- TD Place Arena in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
- TD Place Stadium in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
- TD Stadium in London, Ontario, Canada
Credit agency ratings
After Moody's Investor Service downgraded the credit worthiness of Royal Bank of Canada to Aa1 on December 13, 2010, TD was the only of Canada's Big Five banks with a top Aaa credit rating (at the time CIBC was Aa2, Scotiabank Aa1 and Bank of Montreal was Aa2). It is also ranked number 1 in the Top 1000 2012 listing.
Controversies
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.
In 2015, the Canadian news website the Halifax Examiner reported that a Political action committee (PAC) established by TD Bank had donated over $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 made no 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 programme Go Public reported that TD Bank employees had admitted that, under pressure to achieve sale's 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 SR [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." In an internal letter to employees, Andy Pilkington, executive vice-president of branch banking, wrote: "We don't believe the [CBC] story is an accurate portrayal of our culture," but the report provided an opportunity "to pause, reflect and ask ourselves ... how we can do better for our people and our customers." The bank's stock lost 5.55% of its value on March 10, declining by $3.88 (Cdn) per share to close at $66.00 (Cdn).
Branch locations
As of January 2014, TD operates the sixth largest branch network in North America with 1,100 TD Canada Trust offices and 1,300 TD Bank (U.S.) offices. While its network extends across Canada and the U.S. Atlantic coast, customers of either the Canadian and U.S. component are not able to perform a full range of transactions at a branch of the other component. It does allow an expanded range of transactions to customers who register their accounts for its Cross-Border Banking program.
TD operates 2,800 ATMs in Canada and 1,900 in the U.S. for a total of 4,700, and allows customers of either component to withdraw funds in the U.S. or Canada without Plus Network or Presto! transaction surcharges.
Canada
- All provinces
- Northwest Territories
- Yukon
United States
References
Bibliography
- Schull, Joseph, 100 years of banking in Canada: a history of the Toronto-Dominion Bank illustrated by Brad Smith. Vancouver: Copp Clark, c1958. ix, 222 p.: ill.; 24 cm.
External links
- Official websites
- TD stock profiles and quotes
- TD NYSE Stock Quote
- TD TSX Stock Quote
- Toronto-Dominion Bank stock performance chart from GStock
- General
- Yahoo! - The Toronto-Dominion Bank Company Profile
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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