PARSIPPANY — TD Bank announced its plans to close 81 branches, including the branch at 430 North Beverwyck Road effective April 23.
In a statement, the Canadian-based bank with U.S. headquarters in Cherry Hill said plans to close 81 branches, including 13 locations in New Jersey.
TD Bank cited lower numbers of customers and transaction volumes, as well as proximity to other TD Bank branches in determining which location to close, according to the statement.
“We have already begun notifying impacted customers,” a spokeswoman said on behalf of TD Bank. “Our goal is to make this transition as smooth as possible for them.”
TD Bank branches closing in New Jersey include:
- 430 North Beverwyck Road, Parsippany
- 601 College Drive, Blackwood
- 1506 Berlin Road, Cherry Hill
- 351 Midland Avenue, Garfield
- 1636 Route 38, Lumberton
- 571 New York Avenue, Lyndhurst
- 688 Paramus Road, Paramus
- 5 State Highway 31, Pennington
- 536 North Maple Avenue, Ridgewood
- 129 South Black Horse Pike, Runnemede
- 10 Mule Road, Toms River
- 361 Union Boulevard, Totowa
- 560 North Avenue East, Westfield
TD Bank, N.A., is an American national bank and subsidiary of the Canadian multinational Toronto-Dominion Bank. It operates primarily across the East Coast, in fifteen U.S. states and Washington, D.C. TD Bank is the seventh-largest U.S. bank by deposits and the 8th largest bank in the United States by total assets, resulting from many mergers and acquisitions.
The bank was sued in 2016 for allegations that their coin counting machines, “Penny Arcades,” were inaccurately counting coins. The lawsuit estimates that 26 cents out of every $100 were not counted, totaling $9 million.
The bank took its current name, TD Bank, N.A. on May 31, 2008, through the acquisition and renaming of Commerce Bank and its subsequent merger with TD Banknorth.
The North Beverwyck Road branch first opened as a Commerce Bank. Commerce Bancorp was a Cherry Hill, New Jersey-based bank created in 1973.
Commerce Bank was founded by fast-food restaurant franchise owner Vernon Hill, a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Hill sought to bring fast food convenience to banking and expanded Commerce from one location to over 435 in thirty-three years.
The federal Office of the Comptroller of Currency and the Federal Reserve’s investigation of insider dealing at Commerce (unrelated to the Philadelphia case) led to a settlement with the bank (no charges were filed) that included restrictions on the bank’s expansion. Hill then retired as chairman, president, and chief executive officer. Hill sued Commerce in 2008, saying he was fired without cause and was owed more than $57 million in severance and damages. In 2013, a federal court ruled that Commerce could not legally pay Hill because the bank had refused to “to certify it had no reason to believe Hill had committed fraud, breached his fiduciary duty or abused his insider privileges.”
Commerce Bank was called Mc-Bank because Vernon Hill used his knowledge of the fast-food chains he owned and applied it to the banking industry.
Commerce’s philosophy was that they were retailers, not bankers, and went so far as to call their various locations stores, not branches.
Features that Commerce offered its customers included:
- “America’s most convenient bank”
- Seven-day lobby or drive-thru hours, even in Center City Philadelphia and Manhattan, with the exception of branches in Paramus, (Bergen County law requires most businesses to be closed on Sunday)
- Instant creation of ATM cards on the spot at the time of account opening
- No overdraft fees on debit card usage
- Free “penny arcade” coin counting machines for both customers and non-customers
- No-fee Visa gift cards for customers
- Lollipops and dog biscuits in the lobby and drive-thru
- Foreign ATM fee reimbursement (if you maintain a daily balance of $2,500 through the statement cycle)
“No Stupid Fees, No Stupid Hours”
