TD Bank to pay $3 billion in fines, limit growth in settlement

TD Bank is reportedly expected to pay a whopping $3 billion in fines to the Department of Justice and financial crimes regulators to settle a federal probe over its alleged failure to monitor money laundering by drug cartels.

TD Bank, whose U.S. unit is the 10th-largest American bank by assets, is also set to accept limits on its growth as part of the settlement, according to the report by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday night.

The reported restrictions on TD Bank’s growth would be similar to those imposed by the Federal Reserve on Wells Fargo in 2018 over what the Fed called “widespread consumer abuses” at that bank.

TD Bank shares were down more than 3% midday Thursday.

A spokeswoman for Toronto-based TD Bank, which is Canada’s second-largest bank, had no immediate comment on the WSJ report.

The newspaper reported in May that the DOJ was investigating how Chinese organized crime groups and drug traffickers used TD Bank to launder money derived from the sale of the deadly opiate fentanyl in the United States.

In September, TD Bank was ordered to pay nearly $28 million by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for repeatedly furnishing consumer reporting agencies with information about customers that contained numerous errors, and waiting more than a year to fix those mistakes despite knowing about them.

Read the full WSJ story here: TD Bank Faces $3 Billion in Penalties and Growth Restrictions in U.S. Settlement

This is developing news. Check back for updates.