TORONTO/NEW YORK — Toronto-Dominion Bank has begun laying off staff in Canada and the United States as part of a company-wide initiative to cut costs, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

TD, Canada’s biggest lender by assets, started the process by hiring Boston Consulting Group to examine ways to drive efficiencies, the sources said.

Following the review, TD informed employees of the job cuts last week and this week, with a further wave of job losses expected next week, they added.

The cuts are in both its major divisions, retail and wholesale, and include investment banking and support staff, the sources said.

Toronto-Dominion Bank confirmed Monday that it is eliminating some jobs and changing others as part of the company-wide review.

The bank would not confirm how many people are affected by the review, which began in the first quarter of the year with a focus on the lender’s U.S. operations.

A TD spokeswoman said the review is now focused on the bank’s Canadian operations.

“As a result of the review, some roles are changing and some are being impacted,” the bank said in an email Monday.
“For those impacted colleagues, we are focused on treating them fairly and with respect through this process.”

One of the sources said the bank was laying off several hundred employees stretching all the way to heads of departments. About half of TD’s municipal bond desk in New York was also being laid off, the second source said.

Faced with a sluggish domestic economy and slowing loan growth, Canadian banks have been aggressively looking for ways to cut expenses. The cost cutting comes about a year after Bharat Masrani was named chief executive of the Canadian lender.

In a conference call with analysts in August, Masrani said a recent restructuring charge reflected the first phase of a bank-wide focus on reducing costs and a second and final phase was expect to be mostly completed by the end of the year.

TD, whose rivals include Royal Bank of Canada and Scotiabank, has successfully expanded into the United States, where it is one of the 10 biggest banks. Last month, Masrani told Reuters he was looking to expand the lender’s U.S. presence through acquisitions.

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