The branch closures, or "mergers" in bankspeak, have been looming on the horizon ever since TD bought Canada Trust last year for almost $8 billion.
When the deal was announced, TD said it would hold off on closures, but now it is ready to go ahead and close 275 of Canada Trust's locations across the country.
The process is expected to take until the fall of 2003, leaving TD Canada Trust with about 1,000 branches across the country. Last year, TD said the Canada Trust takeover would lead to the loss of about 4,900 jobs from the combined companies.
The bank received plenty of complaints over the first stage of combining TD and Canada Trust operations, standardizing customers' accounts. Some patrons complained of sharper higher service fees, something TD president Ed Clark described as "teething problems" in the complicated process of integrating the two companies.
That won't be the case with branch closures, he promised.
"We've had good reactions from our customers," Clark, the former head of Canada Trust, said from the meeting in Winnipeg. "Most of the branches that are being merged are quite close together, so we don't expect that we will inconvenience our customer base."
Customers in Atlantic Canada saw new TD Canada Trust signs go up on their branches last month. Next up will be B.C. and Alberta, followed by Manitoba and Quebec and, finally, Ontario. Once they get their new signs and work out their lease cancellations, branches slated for closure will send letters to their customers.
TD promised there will be at least four months' notice given before a branch is closed.
