With TD's acquisition called off, so is its community benefits plan

Bloomberg

Now that TD Bank Group's acquisition of First Horizon has been scrapped, the Canadian bank says that a community benefits agreement it reached in connection with the deal won't take effect.

The five-year agreement with community groups, which was unveiled in February, was contingent on the completion of the merger, a TD spokesperson said in a statement.

The bank will continue its dialogue with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and will also support the local communities where it operates through charitable giving, the spokesperson said.

"We have valued the opportunity to work with community groups across our footprint over the past year to better understand their concerns and priorities," the TD spokesperson said.

The community benefits plan, which was touted as a $50 billion agreement, had been expected to help TD secure regulatory approval for the deal. The Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have applied greater scrutiny in recent years to the impact of large bank mergers on consumers.

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition led a group of 60 organizations that negotiated the plan with TD. When it was announced, the parties said that it would increase funding for initiatives expanding loan access and banking services to lower- and middle-income consumers.

Even though TD is not bound by the deal, there's still an expectation that the bank will meet at least some of its commitments, said Jesse Van Tol, president and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

That's especially true in Philadelphia, where TD has a large presence, he said. He noted that TD is working on opening new branch locations in Philadelphia and continues to have conversations with local community groups.

"The smart institutions, and I would count TD among them, know and understand that, even absent a merger, it's better to have a plan in place to be ready for if and when they do buy another bank," Van Tol said.

TD's acquisition of Memphis-based First Horizon, which was valued at $13.4 billion when it was announced in February 2022, was called off last week after a series of delays in receiving regulatory approval.

The two banks said they mutually agreed to terminate the deal after determining that there was no clarity on when or whether regulatory approval would be granted. TD Bank agreed to pay First Horizon $200 million to terminate the acquisition.

The snags in receiving regulatory approval were completely unrelated to First Horizon, said Bryan Jordan, the Tennessee bank's chairman and CEO. In an interview, he called the outcome "disappointing" and said that he was unable to delve into details behind the decision to terminate the deal.

U.S. banking regulators' concerns about TD's anti-money laundering practices were the biggest obstacle to the deal's approval, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Under the community benefits plan, TD had pledged to provide $21 billion in residential mortgage and home improvement loans, $17.5 billion in community and economic development loans and $7.75 billion for lending to small businesses.

The bank had also committed to opening at least 25 new branch locations, or 25% of all of its new branches, in marginalized communities. And it had agreed to meet with community advisory councils in Philadelphia and Memphis.

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Local organizations that would have benefited from the plan said they hope the Canadian lender will prioritize community engagement in the future.

Rachel Labush, divisional supervising attorney at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, said that TD "has been well behind its peers in mortgage lending to Black and Hispanic borrowers."

"Whether or not the agreement officially goes into effect, we hope that TD will continue to increase its mortgage lending to aspiring homeowners of color and those in low- and moderate-income communities in and around Philadelphia," Labush said in an email.

Leila Amirhamzeh, director of community reinvestment at New Jersey Citizen Action, called the canceled agreement a "disappointment," but also said that the group expects to continue to work with TD.

"We have had previous state-based community benefits agreements with TD Bank and have every expectation that we will continue to have them with the bank going forward," Amirhamzeh said in an email.

Ken Thomas, president of Community Development Fund Advisors, argued that the commitments TD made "should still hold true," especially in the Philadelphia area.

TD entered the U.S. market with its 2007 acquisition of Commerce Bank, which operated in New Jersey and Philadelphia, Thomas noted.

"TD Bank owes its history to Philadelphia," he said. "It should do everything in that agreement regardless of the merger. If they do, it would show they are truly a bank that cares about the community."