Canada’s TD Bank quarterly profit falls on US business weakness

(Reuters) – Canada’s second-biggest lender TD Bank reported a fall in fourth-quarter profit on Thursday, hurt by weakness in its U.S. business due to the impact of anti-money laundering issues.

The lender in October became the biggest bank in U.S. history to plead guilty to violating a federal law aimed at preventing money laundering and agreed to pay $3 billion in penalties.

TD has been hit by a rare asset cap imposed by regulators in the United States. The bank will reduce its assets in the country by 10% and sell as much as $50 billion of low-yielding bonds and reinvest the proceeds.

The bank’s U.S. retail business posted an adjusted net income of C$1.10 billion ($782.70 million) in the quarter, a decrease of C$174 million from a year earlier.

Analysts believe TD could look to get more competitive in the domestic market following the U.S. asset cap imposition.

The bank’s adjusted net income fell to C$3.21 billion ($2.28 billion), or C$1.72 per share, in the three months ended Oct. 31, from C$3.49 billion, or C$1.82 per share, a year earlier.

($1 = 1.4054 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)