TORONTO – TD Bank Group said Thursday that it’s cutting about two per cent of its workforce as the bank works to reduce costs and refocus spending under new leadership.
The job cuts amount to a little over 2,000 employees based on the roughly 101,800 employees it had last year.
TD made the announcement as it reported a second-quarter profit of $11.1 billion, though earnings included an $8.6 billion after-tax boost from the sale of its shares in the Charles Schwab Corp.
The share sale, and the job cuts, come as TD continues to work to move past its massive anti-money laundering oversight scandal that saw it pay over US$3 billion in fines last year, led U.S. regulators to put limits on its assets there, and resulted in former CEO Bharat Masrani stepping down.
Current chief executive Raymond Chun, who took on the role at the start of the second quarter, said the bank is working to turn the page.
“We are structurally reducing costs across the bank by taking a disciplined look at our operations and processes,” said Chun on an earnings call Thursday.
“I want to thank our colleagues across the bank for their tremendous dedication and efforts. Together, we are writing the next chapter of this great institution’s story.”
The job cuts come as part of a wider restructuring that will see the bank also cut back on some real estate, wind down some business and write off some assets as part of its strategic review, said chief financial officer Kelvin Tran.
He said the bank will look to achieve the job cuts whenever possible through attrition and will also shift employees to areas where it’s working to expand its capabilities.
TD took a $163 million pre-tax charge in the quarter from the restructuring, mostly from real estate, while it expects around $650 million in pre-tax charges over the next several quarters from severance and other costs.
It said the restructuring should lead to around $600 million in annual pre-tax savings when complete, money the bank plans to plow back into the business such as artificial intelligence and technology, said Tran.
“Through this restructuring program and the strategic review more broadly, we are innovating to drive efficiency and structurally reduce the bank’s cost base,” he said.
The moves also come as companies everywhere grapple with macroeconomic uncertainty and hesitant consumers and businesses.
Chun noted housing activity was down in the quarter, while the bank has also seen moderated foreign currency spending as consumers are more cautious, especially with cross-border purchases.
But the bank’s provisions for potentially bad loans rose only modestly in the quarter, up $103 million from the previous quarter to $1.2 billion, or up $211 million from the same quarter last year.
The provisions build was lower than analysts expected, helping TD’s adjusted earnings of $1.97 per diluted share easily beat the $1.76 per share profit analysts had expected, according to LSEG Data & Analytics. The measure was still down from the $2.04 a share the bank made in the same quarter last year.
Jefferies analyst John Aiken said in a note that TD came in ahead of expectations in most segments, though he wonders if the market will see the provisions as enough for the uncertainty ahead.
TD said the provisions increase was related to policy and trade uncertainty, while it otherwise would have likely seen rates potentially coming down as consumers benefit from lower interest rates.
Revenue for the quarter totalled $22.9 billion, up from $13.8 billion in the same quarter last year.
TD said its Canadian personal and commercial banking business earned just under $1.7 billion in its latest quarter, down from just over $1.7 billion in the same quarter last year as it saw higher provisions for credit losses and non-interest expenses, partially offset by higher revenue.
TD’s U.S. retail operations earned $120 million in the second quarter, down from $507 million a year earlier. The bank’s wealth management and insurance business earned $707 million in its latest quarter, up from $621 million a year ago. TD’s wholesale banking division earned $419 million, up from $361 million in the same quarter last year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 22, 2025.
Companies in this story: (TSX:TD)
