TD Retail Card Services, a Mahwah, N.J., unit of Toronto-Dominion Bank, has bought the rights to operate a private-label credit card portfolio for the Montreal jewelry retailer Birks & Mayors Inc.
The unit said Wednesday that it "will direct all facets" of the retailer's private-label card operations at 37 of its Canadian locations.
The price was not disclosed. A spokesman for TD Retail Card Services said it did not purchase receivables but will own any new accounts.
The existing Canadian receivables are "owned by another party," which TD would not identify. That card is no longer accepted at Birks, and existing private-label cardholders will need to reapply for a private-label card issued by TD, which will own the new accounts.
TD Retail Card Services will not administer private-label cards for Birks' 31 U.S. stores. The unit said it did not buy the rights to the U.S. operations because the "contract was not up." It would not say who owned the U.S. portfolio.
Birks did not return calls for comment Wednesday.
The purchase is the second in the Canadian private-label market for TD Retail Card Services since June, when it was rebranded from Shoppers Charge Accounts Co. (Toronto-Dominion acquired that unit with Hudson United Bancorp in 2006.) In September the unit said it had acquired the private-label portfolio of Circuit City Stores Inc.'s InterTAN Canada Ltd.
