The Toronto-Dominion Bank (in French, Banque Toronto-Dominion , and commonly TD in either language) is the second largest bank in Canada by market capitalization and deposits. The bank was created in 1955 through the merger of the Bank of Toronto and Dominion Bank, which were founded in 1855 and 1869, respectively.
The bank operates as TD Bank Financial Group (in French, Groupe Financier Banque TD ) and has over 74,000 employees and over seventeen million clients worldwide. In Canada, the bank operates as TD Canada Trust and serves more than eleven million customers at over 1,100 branches. In the United States, the company operates as TD Bank (which was created through the merger of TD Banknorth and TD Commerce Bank), and also has a network of nearly 1,100 branches.
The company is ranked at number 95 on the Forbes Global 2000 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 .
Operations
The bank's headquarters is at the Toronto-Dominion Centre at King Street and Bay Street in Toronto. The towering black skyscrapers were designed by 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 Board of the bank.
TD Bank Financial Group subsidiaries include:
- TD Ameritrade - Online discount brokerage and wealth management (owns < 45%)
- TD Asset Management - Global asset management
- TD Bank, N.A. - official merger of bank charters for Commerce Bank or Commerce Bancorp, TD Banknorth and TD Bank USA on June 1, 2008
- TD Canada Trust - Canadian personal and commercial banking
- TD Commercial Banking - Global commercial banking
- TD Insurance - Insurance products and services, including a division that specializes in Alumni/Professional group rates (formerly Meloche Monnex)
- TD Securities - Global wholesale banking
- TD Waterhouse - Investment and wealth management
- Symcor Transaction processing outsourcing, e.g. cheques, bills and statements. (1/3 owned by each of the Royal Bank of Canada, the Bank of Montreal and the Toronto-Dominion Bank.)
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 Ameritrade and TD Mutual Funds.
TD Securities is the investment banking arm of TD Bank Financial 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.
History
The origins of The Toronto-Dominion Bank lie in the efforts of a group of Ontario businessmen 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 first petition to the provincial legislature, in 1854, for the incorporation of The Millers, Merchants and Farmers Bank of Canada West, was rejected. 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.
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, the Bank of Toronto was joined on the Ontario scene by the Dominion Bank, launched by entrepreneurs and professionals under the leadership of James Austin. 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 too 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 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 Bank of Toronto moved into a large new head office building at the corner of King and Bay Streets in Toronto in 1913 and the Dominion Bank followed with another landmark head office at King and Yonge Street in 1914.
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 its credit policies and resisted the introduction of a central bank to control the money supply and advise on fiscal policy. Ultimately the Bank of Canada was established and the banks relinquished their right to issue their own currency.
The coming of the Second World War 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.”
On November 1 , 1954 , Canada's minister of finance announced that the amalgamation was accepted 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. Head office functions were combined, branches were consolidated, and a new regional organization was established. 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 identity of the new bank was established 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 practises and meth
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