[Photo:  Toronto Financial District, by George Socka / Wikimedia Commons]

Nearly 3 weeks ago, Toronto-Dominion Bank was rocked by allegations that its employees were involved in a ‘Wells Fargo-Like Scandal’. [See Financialish, 3/13/17]. TD employees reportedly informed the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) that they felt incredible pressure” to meet “unrealistic” sales goals,which has led some to open unauthorized accounts bearing higher fees.

Since its initial story, CBC reports that it has received some 1,000 emails from employees of 5 of Canada’s big banks claiming they felt undue pressure to meet sales targets.

In the past 2 weeks, TD Bank has embarked on an internal investigation, with help from an outside firm. And, on Thursday, CEO Bharat Masrani reported to bank shareholders that, so far, he doesn’t believe the problem is widespread.

“While we have sales goals to help manage our business, people behaving unethically in order to achieve these goals would be inconsistent with who we are as an institution.”

 

“Still, the experiences expressed by some of our colleagues concern me.”

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada said its plans to being in April its next review of the industry’s business practices.