TD Bank To Pay More Than $3 Bln In Fines After Pleading Guilty To Money Laundering Charges

OTTAWA (dpa-AFX) - TD Bank (TD, TD.TO) has agreed to pay around US$3.09 billion in fines to U.S. authorities and has pleaded guilty to charges related to money laundering in a case brought by federal prosecutors.

TD Bank said that the bank and certain of its U.S. subsidiaries have consented to orders with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Reserve Board, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and entered into plea agreements with the Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section and the United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey.

TD Bank agreed to pay over $1.8 billion in penalties to resolve the Justice Department's investigation into violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and money laundering.

TD Bank has also agreed to retain an independent compliance monitor for three years and to remediate and enhance its AML compliance program. TD Bank has separately reached agreements with the the Federal Reserve Board, OCC, and FinCEN, and the Justice Department will credit $123.5 million of the forfeiture toward the the Federal Reserve Board's resolution.

According to court documents, between January 2014 and October 2023, TD Bank had long-term, pervasive, and systemic deficiencies in its U.S. AML policies, procedures, and controls but failed to take appropriate remedial action. Instead, senior executives at TD Bank enforced a budget mandate, referred to internally as a 'flat cost paradigm,' requiring that TD Bank's budget not increase year-over-year, despite its profits and risk profile increasing significantly over the same period. Although TD Bank maintained elements of an AML program that appeared adequate on paper, fundamental, widespread flaws in its AML program made TD Bank an 'easy target' for perpetrators of financial crime.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced a cease and desist order and a $450 million civil money penalty against TD Bank, N.A. and TD Bank USA, N.A. , for deficiencies in the bank's Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering compliance program.

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