Some of the Rest of the StoryReading Stefanie Marotta's article in today's Globe and Mail raised some questions in my mind as TD is my second largest holding in Canadian banks.
I was ery disappointed with the TD Report today since it didn't identify anyone who was going to be held responsible for the money laundering issue that has tarnished the bank's financial reputation, dropped the share price and continues to weigh down the share price until the amount of monetary penalties are announced.........you'll also notice that none of the other Canadian banks were identified as sources of money laundering.
IMO, just some comments on the today's report. "CEO, Bharat Masrani said that the bank has identified the weakness in its anit-money laundering procedures, and that the lender is investing heavily in improving those processes." So, who was responsible for having inadequate anti-money laundering procedures in place? It appears that the other Canadian banks had someone in place that placed adequate procedures in place. "Investing heavily in improving those procedures" is also going to mean millions of dollars in fines for being caught unprepared to follow the laws in place that deal with anti-money laundering. These fines are also going to dampen the share value even further when they are announced. The derailed takeover of the Tennessee-based First Horizon Corp. stemming from the probes by regulators and law-enforcement agencies, including the US Department of Justice is another blow to future TD earnings because of carelessly not carrying out someone's responsibilities, and the shareholders are taking the full brunt while no employee is held responsible.
"Mr. Masrani said that TD has hired hundreds of employees across the company to support its risk and control operations." "in January, The Globe reported that TD is implementing a companywide action plan to strengthen its anti-laundering controls and risk management practices and it had hired new senior executives to oversee the overhaul." So, let's see, Mr. Masri said that the bank had identified the weaknesses in it's anti-laundering procedures and that they are investing heavily in improving those procedures. Also, while discussing first-quarter earnings results that topped analysts expectations, Mr. Masri said that he cannot yet publicly share the nature of the gaps in its anti-money laundering procedures. Sounds like that the bank did not have a qualified executive employee to ensure that adequate procedures were in place to prevent anti-money laundering, while the other Canadian banks had qualified personnel and satisfactory procedures in place. So why is TD hiring hundreds of employees and new senior executives to deal with not having adequate procedures in place? And why isn't the individual responsible to ensure that the bank had the proper procedures in place and that they were being followed? We need adequate procedures developed and put in place and a qualified individual to ensure that they are followed. And we still need a firing.