Toronto, March 15, 2012 --
The following release represents Moody's Investors Service's summary
credit opinion on Toronto-Dominion Bank (The) and includes certain
regulatory disclosures regarding its ratings. This release does
not constitute any change in Moody's ratings or rating rationale for Toronto-Dominion
Bank (The) and its affiliates.
Moody's current ratings on Toronto-Dominion Bank (The) and
affiliates are:
Long Term Issuer rating of Aaa
Senior Unsecured (domestic and foreign currency) ratings of Aaa
Senior Unsecured MTN Program (domestic and foreign currency) ratings of
(P)Aaa
Long Term Bank Deposits (domestic and foreign currency) ratings of Aaa
Long Term Deposit Note/CD Program (domestic and currency) ratings of Aaa
Long Term Deposit Note/CD Program (foreign currency) ratings of (P)Aaa/Aaa
Bank Financial Strength ratings of B+
Subordinate (domestic currency) ratings of Aa1/A1
Subordinate MTN Program (domestic currency) ratings of (P)Aa1
Preferred Stock Non-cumulative (domestic currency) ratings of A2
Preferred Stock Non-cumulative (foreign currency) ratings of A2
Senior Unsecured Shelf (foreign currency) ratings of (P)Aaa
Subordinate Shelf (foreign currency) ratings of (P)Aa1
Preferred Shelf (foreign currency) ratings of (P)A2
Commercial Paper (foreign currency) ratings of P-1
Short Term Bank Deposits (domestic and foreign currency) ratings of P-1
BACKED Senior Unsecured MTN Program (foreign currency) ratings of (P)Aaa
BACKED Subordinate MTN Program (foreign currency) ratings of (P)Aa1
BACKED Other Short Term (foreign currency) ratings of (P)P-1
TD Capital Trust III
Junior Subordinate (domestic currency) ratings of A2
TD Capital Trust IV
Preferred Stock (domestic currency) ratings of A2
TD North America L.P.
Senior Unsecured (domestic currency) ratings of Aaa
Toronto Dominion (South East Asia) Limited
BACKED Senior Unsecured MTN Program (foreign currency) ratings of (P)Aaa
BACKED Subordinate MTN Program (foreign currency) ratings of (P)Aa1
BACKED Other Short Term (foreign currency) ratings of (P)P-1
Toronto Dominion Bank (London)
Senior Unsecured MTN Program (foreign currency) ratings of (P)Aaa
Subordinate MTN Program (foreign currency) ratings of (P)Aa1
Other Short Term (foreign currency) ratings of (P)P-1
Toronto Dominion Global Finance
BACKED Senior Unsecured MTN Program (foreign currency) ratings of (P)Aaa
BACKED Other Short Term (foreign currency) ratings of (P)P-1
RATINGS RATIONALE
Moody's assigns a bank financial strength rating (BFSR) of B+ to
The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD). The ratings reflect the
bank's robust retail banking foundation in Canada which enjoys ,
1)significant share of market (top three) in virtually all Canadian retail
financial services, 2) solid risk-adjusted profitability,
3) a very strong controls and risk management discipline, 4) excellent
asset quality and 5) strong capital adequacy ratios. TD has also
built a US East Coast banking franchise that has scale, consistently
generates earnings and diversifies its overall business mix, effectively
addressing the core strategic dilemma of the Canadian banks: how
to deploy the capital they generate domestically. TD faces on ongoing
challenge in terms of optimizing cross-border cost synergies.
Though we believe TD will continue to successfully integrate its acquisitions,
generating meaningful franchise value from these transactions will take
some time since they all have significant asset quality challenges.
Their most recent US acquisition, Chrysler Financial represents
a gradual diversification into prime consumer auto-lending and
helps to fill in TD's deposit/asset gap in the US. Early
performance indicators are encouraging and systems and employee integration
is on track.
TD's commitment to the Wholesale Investment Banking sector is modest
and the Bank has made good progress in de-risking this operation
in recent years, addressing a previous area of concern for Moody's.
Exposure to troubled European sovereigns is not significant. A
central challenge facing TD and its Canadian peers is their exposure to
the increasingly leveraged Canadian consumer. A decline in consumer
asset quality may be triggered by a housing correction, rising interest
rates, rising unemployment or a combination thereof. This
concern is offset by the characteristics of the Canadian consumer lending
market which include the generally low loan-to-value profile
of mortgage exposures and a high proportion of government supported insurance
for mortgage loans.
TD's deposit rating of Aaa is based on its financial strength rating of
B+ (which translates into a baseline risk assessment of Aa2) and
Moody's assessment of a very high probability of support from the Canadian
government.
Rating Outlook
The rating outlook is negative.
What Could Change the Rating - Up
Upward rating pressure is not likely given our negative rating outlook
and the fact that at B+, TD's BFSR is at the top of our global
rated universe. Currently, no bank is rated higher.
TD's outlook could return to stable if we believe that its U.S.
expansion strategy is not going to negatively impact its overall franchise,
even in a weaker economic environment and concerns over the escalating
leverage of the Canadian consumer abate.
What Could Change the Rating - Down
Significant volatility in performance is generally not anticipated at
banks rated B+ for financial strength. Notable integration
challenges in the U.S. would also cause downward rating
pressure.
The methodologies used in these ratings were Bank Financial Strength Ratings:
Global Methodology published in February 2007, Incorporation of
Joint-Default Analysis into Moody's Bank Ratings: A Refined
Methodology published in March 2007 and Guidelines for Rating Hybrid Securities
and Securities and Subordinated Debt published in November 2009.
Please see the Credit Policy page on www.moodys.com for
a copy of these methodologies.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
Although these credit ratings have been issued in a non-EU country
which has not been recognized as endorsable at this date, the credit
ratings are deemed "EU qualified by extension" and may still
be used by financial institutions for regulatory purposes until 30 April
2012. Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the
Moody's office that has issued a particular Credit Rating is available
on www.moodys.com.
For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt,
this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series
or category/class of debt or pursuant to a program for which the ratings
are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's
rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider,
this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
to the rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular
rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the
support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings,
this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive
rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt,
in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed
prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would
have affected the rating. For further information please see the
ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.
Information sources used to prepare each of the ratings are the following:
parties involved in the ratings, public information, and confidential
and proprietary Moody's Investors Service information.
Moody's considers the quality of information available on the rated
entities, obligations or credits satisfactory for the purposes of
issuing these ratings.
Moody's adopts all necessary measures so that the information it
uses in assigning the ratings is of sufficient quality and from sources
Moody's considers to be reliable including, when appropriate,
independent third-party sources. However, Moody's
is not an auditor and cannot in every instance independently verify or
validate information received in the rating process.
Please see the ratings disclosure page on www.moodys.com
for general disclosure on potential conflicts of interests.
Please see the ratings disclosure page on www.moodys.com
for information on (A) MCO's major shareholders (above 5%)
and for (B) further information regarding certain affiliations that may
exist between directors of MCO and rated entities as well as (C) the names
of entities that hold ratings from MIS that have also publicly reported
to the SEC an ownership interest in MCO of more than 5%.
A member of the board of directors of this rated entity may also be a
member of the board of directors of a shareholder of Moody's Corporation;
however, Moody's has not independently verified this matter.
Please see Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions on the Rating
Process page on www.moodys.com for further information on
the meaning of each rating category and the definition of default and
recovery.
Please see ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for the last rating action and the rating history. The date on
which some ratings were first released goes back to a time before Moody's
ratings were fully digitized and accurate data may not be available.
Consequently, Moody's provides a date that it believes is
the most reliable and accurate based on the information that is available
to it. Please see the ratings disclosure page on our website www.moodys.com
for further information.
Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to
the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has
issued the rating.
David Beattie
Vice President - Senior Analyst
Financial Institutions Group
Moody's Canada Inc.
70 York Street
Suite 1400
Toronto, ON M5J 1S9
Canada
(416) 214-1635
Robert Young
MD - Financial Institutions
Financial Institutions Group
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Releasing Office:
Moody's Canada Inc.
70 York Street
Suite 1400
Toronto, ON M5J 1S9
Canada
(416) 214-1635
Moody's Disclosures on Credit Ratings of Toronto-Dominion Bank (The)