Consumer group protests TD Banknorth acquisition

PORTLAND – A consumer advocacy group in New York that tried to derail Banknorth Group Inc.’s merger with Canada’s TD Bank Financial Group said Tuesday it is challenging the first proposed acquisition by the product of that merger.

Inner City Press, based in the Bronx, said it has filed a 12-page protest with the Federal Reserve Bank of TD Banknorth’s bid for Hudson United Bancorp Inc. of Mahwah, N.J. The $1.9 billion cash and stock deal was announced in July.

In its call for public hearings by the Federal Reserve, ICP claimed that TD Banknorth underserved minority and low-income customers by rejecting their loan applications at disproportionately high rates. The group raised similar issues when it objected to the deal that created TD Banknorth.

“The fair lending record of TD Banknorth in 2004 is even worse than Banknorth’s was in 2003,” said Matthew Lee, executive director of ICP. “Just because Toronto Dominion wants to expand into the United States doesn’t mean it’s good for consumers and communities, nor that the regulators should approve it.”

TD Banknorth spokesman Jeff Nathanson withheld comment on the specifics of the complaint but said the bank would respond to any concerns raised by the Fed during the regulatory process.

“As a leading community bank in the Northeast, we look forward to entering the new markets of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and meeting the financial needs of all of the residents of the market area,” Nathanson said.

Lee, a fair lending crusader, also said ICP’s opposition to the merger reflected concerns over Toronto Dominion’s settlement of Enron-related issues as well as accusations of money laundering involving Hudson United.

TD Banknorth, with headquarters in Portland, has assets of $32 billion and more than 350 branches in New England and upstate New York. Hudson United, with assets of $9 billion, has more than 200 branches in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut.