TD’s Possible Growth into the US

Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) is scouting for potential acquisition opportunities in the United States (U.S.), particularly deals that are being brokered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), says its chief financial officer.

It has been noted that TD has a great relationship with the FDIC and has completed access to those deals as a Canadian bank.

Colleen Johnston has noted that TD is actively looking for FDIC-assisted deals, and only comment made was that there is a bid on at least one FDIC-assisted deal, which was the BankUnited deal, and that deal did not go through.

BankUnited Financial Corp. is a Florida based lender that was seized by U.S. regulators in May. It was plagued with capital and mortgage lending woes, and considered to be one of the most expensive bank failures of the financial crisis.

TD was beaten by a consortium of U.S. private-equity investors, who acquired BankUnited during the FDIC auction process.

FDIC is trying to find viable buyers to a number of U.S. lenders that remain on the brink. These deals are attractive as the FDIC assumes much of the asset risk. Additionally, those transactions are much less capital intensive than private takeovers, notes Johnston.

TD, Canada’s second largest bank plans to open 30-50 new branches in the United States on a go-forward basis, however Johnston did not provide a specific timeframe.

TD currently has about 1,100 branches from Maine to Florida along with 1,118 branches in Canada.