TD Bank allocates $450 million for US AML probe fine

On Tuesday, TD Bank, a Canadian bank, announced that it had made an initial $450 million provision for talks with the U.S. regulator on an anti-money laundering investigation and potential fines.

The lender said last year that the U.S. Department of Justice was looking into its AML compliance program and that it was assisting with the inquiry.

According to TD Bank, talks with the DOJ and three US regulators are still ongoing, and the bank expects more fines.

The bank claimed that neither the ultimate total of possible monetary fines nor any non-monetary fines that are currently unknown and not reliably estimable are reflected in the provision.

In a statement, the business claimed that TD's AML program was insufficient to efficiently keep an eye on, identify, notify, and handle suspicious activities. Remedial work has been initiated to address these shortcomings.

Analysts predicted that the fine would be between $500 million and $1 billion, an amount that the lender can afford to pay given its robust capital position.

The AML compliance program at TD was deemed inadequate earlier this month, and the lender was working to improve it, according to TD CEO Bharat Masrani.

Not long before it revealed the AML investigation, it also canceled its $13.4 billion acquisition of First Horizon, a regional lender in the United States, citing delays in regulatory permits.