History
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.[10] In 1954, an agreement was reached to merge the two financial institutions. The merger was later accepted by the Canadian minister of Finance on November 1, 1954, and was made official on February 1, 1955. The new institution adopted the name Toronto-Dominion Bank.[10] The two banks were of similar size and had healthy balance sheets at the time of the merger. They were among Canada's smaller banks; their desire merge was to compete with the larger banks. The combined Toronto-Dominion Bank became the fourth largest bank in Canada, with assets of $1.1billion.[11]
In 1967, TD Bank opened its new head office, the Toronto-Dominion Centre in downtown Toronto.[10] In the next year, the bank entered into a partnership with Chargex (later known as Visa Inc.).[10] The TD Bank shield logo was unveiled to the public near the end of the decade, in 1969.[10]
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.[12]
In 1987, Toronto Dominion Securities Inc. was established by the bank.[10] 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." By 2010, the partnership had expanded where 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.[13]
TD 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. In 2011, Symcor produces close to 675million statements and more than two billion pages of customer statements, and processes three billion cheques annually.[14][15] In 1998, TD Bank and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce agreed to a merger. However, the Government of Canada, at the recommendation of then Minister of Finance Paul Martin, blocked the merger, as well as another proposed merger between the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Bank of Canada – believing it was not in the best interest of Canadians.[16]
In 2000, Toronto-Dominion Securities bought Newcrest Capital for CA$224million (75 per cent in stock and 25 per cent in cash).[17] In the same year, TD Bank also acquired Canada Trust, re-branding most of its commercial banking operations in Canada as TD Canada Trust.
Ultimately Martin would approve the merger of TD and Canada Trust with some conditions. The new bank sold Canada Trust's MasterCard business to meet the demands of the Competition Bureau due to the fact that TD issued Visa cards at the time and Canada Trust issued MasterCard and competition rules at the time prevented a single institution from the duality of selling both brands simultaneously.[18] The Competition Bureau also forced the sale of 13 branches, representing over 120,000 customers, in three Ontario markets where the territories of TD and Canada Trust overlapped. The vast majority of the affected branches were in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, including four in Kitchener, two in Waterloo, four in Cambridge and one in Elmira. All but one branch were sold to the Bank of Montreal for $50million. The remaining branch in Paris, Ontario, was sold to Laurentian Bank of Canada. In all six TD branches and seven Canada Trust branches specifically changed hands to meet the Competition Bureau's requirements.[18]
In response, TD announced it would close 275 branches, representing 4,900 employees, to adhere to the ruling and to reduce overall costs. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business said the Competition Bureau's decision to ultimately approve the deal would reduce consumer choice while eliminating the chance to create a second-tier of Canadian banking by killing off the Trust industry in Canada.[19]
21st century
In 2002, TD Bank acquired Stafford Trading and Letco Trading. In the following year, TD Bank acquired Laurentian Bank's retail branches west of Quebec. In 2004, TD Bank entered the American retail banking market, announcing an agreement to acquire the majority stake of Banknorth, a New England–based bank, for a total of US$3.8billion.[20] Banknorth was later rebranded as TD Banknorth after the sale was finalized in March 2005.
In January 2006, the company sold its United States brokerage business branded as TD Waterhouse, which it had purchased in 1984, to Ameritrade. The business was renamed TD Ameritrade.
In April 2007, TD Bank acquired all remaining shares of TD Banknorth, transforming TD Banknorth into a fully owned subsidiary of TD Bank, and resulting in it being no longer traded on the New York Stock Exchange.[21] In the same year, TD Bank acquired Commerce Bancorp, a bank based in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Commerce Bancorp was later merged with TD Banknorth to form TD Bank, N.A. in 2008.
