TD Bank Hires 4,060 -And Counting

The institution calling itself "America's most Convenient Bank"-Canada's Toronto-Dominion-has been growing U.S. earnings and increasing the size of its U.S. staff during the past few months.

Not only did TD's Commercial and Personal U.S. Banking arm generate $315 million or 31% more in reported net income for the second quarter as compared to the year-ago period, but, according to a company statement, "...average FTE [full-time] staffing levels increased by 4,060, or 21%," as compared with second- quarter 2010.

That means there were 23,447 employees in that unit when the bank reported earnings recently, versus 19,387 as of second-quarter 2010. The company attributed the change to acquisitions, segment transfers, and 30 new store openings since last year's second quarter. Company spokeswoman Rebecca Acevedo confirmed that "We continue to hire in the retail and commercial space-i.e. lenders, tellers, as well for our customer service representatives."

Alan Kearns, founder of Toronto-based CareerJoy, the national career and leadership coach, told eFinancialCareers news that like many Canadian banks, TD has used its strengths to pick up less-well run stateside organizations needing stronger leadership.

TD Bank was among those that purchased some failing lenders from the Federal Insurance Deposit Corporation last year, for instance. Those acquisitions helped the organization to "fill out our Maine-to-Florida footprint," TD's Fred Graziano, Head of Retail Banking, said at the time.

By targeting the U.S. client, TD Bank is dealing with a more sophisticated audience than it does at home, says the career coach, who observes that in Canada, "we never had Sunday service" before TD Bank set the standard. "They're progressive and they're innovative," he says.

Interestingly, a new Globe and Mail ranking places TD Bank at number two out of 1,000 Canadian companies based on annual profits of C4.6 billion late last year as well as seventh largest in the nation by number of employees given its 2010 headcount of 68,725 workers.

Announcing its second quarter income for this year, Bharat Masrani, TD Group Head of U.S. Personal and Commercial Banking explained that "This was a very good quarter for TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, thanks to strong organic growth, stabilizing credit, the ongoing expansion of our store network and our focus on our customers.

"We remain confident we will deliver strong volume growth for the balance of the year, even though the economy is still recovering," Masrani added.