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TD Bank's planned integration of Commerce Bancorp's systems, scheduled for last weekend, led to a major technical failure that left customers unable to access some of their money through at least Thursday afternoon.
October 1
As TD Bank customers continued to experience problems accessing their direct deposits and real-time account balances Friday morning, TD Bank said it was "making progress in resolving the processing delays."
"We are making headway each day," said Fred Graziano, an executive vice president and its head of retail banking, "Monday should be a better day."
Nick Petter, a spokesman for the U.S. arm of Toronto-Dominion Bank, said in an e-mail Friday morning that all of Thursday's deposits had been processed, and by Friday afternoon said all of that day's deposits had posted.
"This is a significant improvement compared to yesterday's delay, but customers are not yet seeing their account balances updated in real time."
The glitch that started over the previous weekend, as TD Bank tried to update its systems as part of the integration of the former Commerce Bancorp, had stretched into five days by Friday, in what banking industry consultants called a "once-a-decade" worst-case scenario.
The timing and depth of the problem could be particularly damaging to TD Bank, which has tried to retain Commerce's reputation for convenience and customer service.
Petter reiterated TD Bank's apologies to customers. "We're making progress in resolving the processing delays, but recognize any delay is frustrating for customers and we want to sincerely apologize."
In an email sent Friday afternoon, Petter said customers had regained access "to all expected direct deposits. We have completed processing all of today's direct deposits. Customers receiving direct deposits dated October 2nd will now see those deposits in their accounts."
Also Friday, TD Bank had posted a message to consumers on its Web site about the systems issues and a "frequently asked questions" list. Its toll-free phone number — which was overwhelmed with call volume this week and still could not immediately be reached Friday morning — had been removed from the main site.
Petter would not provide details about the number of employees working, or added to, call centers, but wrote, "We've fully staffed the call centers. People working double shifts. We've posted updates on the Web site and on the online banking portal so people are aware of the delay and call volumes."
