South Jersey Money Laundering costs TD Bank $3 Billion

Totonto Dominion Bank will pay over $3 billion in fines and is subject to a cap on US growth after regulators uncovered widespread money laundering failures in the banks Philadelphia and Miami operations.  

The $3.09 billion to DOJ and FinCEN comes on top of $450 million set aside in April for the Office of the COmptroller of the Currency. The bank is also pleading guilty to criminal charges brought by law enforcement authorities.

“TD Bank’s persistent prioritization of growth over controls allowed its employees to break the law and facilitate the laundering of hundreds of millions of dollars. The bank’s blatant risk management failures attracted illicit actors and are egregious and unacceptable,” said Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael J. Hsu in a prepared statement. “The OCC’s coordinated and comprehensive action, including the imposition of an asset cap, will ensure that the bank focuses on building proper controls commensurate with its risk profile.”

Prosecutors said the bank operated with inadequate guards against money laundering for nearly a decade, failing to act even when staff flagged obvious cases of abuse, such as a customer making daily deposits of $1m in cash.

Flinty New England bankers no more

Formerly TD Banknorth, headquartered in Portland Maine, TD Bank's US Operations changed scope and culture with the 2008 acquisition of scandal-ridden Commerce Bank of Cherry Hill, NJ, which fancied itself "America's Most Convenient Bank."  

At a press conference announcing the charges, US officials said the bank - the 10th largest in the US - had "starved" its compliance programmes of investment, even as it grew.

By 2018, it failed to monitor more than 90% of the transactions on its network, activity worth more than $18tn, prosecutors said at a press conference.

The gaps in compliance were so well-known internally that staff joked that the bank's motto - "America's most convenient bank" - was marketed toward criminals, they said.

TD Bank is the largest lender in US history to plead guilty to failures under the Bank Secrecy Act and the first to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, the US justice department said.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri Delivers Remarks Announcing TD Bank’s Guilty Plea for Bank Secrecy Act and Money Laundering Conspiracy Violations in $1.8B Resolution

FinCEN News Release: https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-assesses-record-13-billion-penalty-against-td-bank

FinCEN Consent Order: https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/enforcement_action/2024-10-10/FinCEN-TD-Bank-Consent-Order-508FINAL.pdf