One of Canada's largest banks has agreed to pay more than $3 billion in penalties and pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the US after failing to prevent drug cartels and other criminals from laundering hundreds of millions of dollars through its accounts.

TD Bank operated with inadequate anti-money laundering controls for nearly a decade, prosecutors said, ignoring obvious signs of abuse including instances where customers made daily cash deposits of up to $1 million.

The settlement, which includes the largest fine ever imposed under US anti-money laundering law, will also restrict the bank's growth in America.

"This is a difficult chapter in our bank's history. These failures took place on my watch as chief executive officer and I apologise to all our stakeholders," said Bharat Masrani, who recently announced his retirement effective April 2025 after leading the bank for a decade.

The bank said it was taking "full responsibility" and would make "the investments, changes and enhancements required to deliver on our commitments." It has already hired more than 700 specialists to strengthen its anti-money laundering programmes, though it acknowledged the overhaul would take several years.

TD Bank is the largest lender in US history to plead guilty to violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and the first to admit conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to the US justice department.

"By making its services convenient for criminals, TD Bank became one," US attorney general Merrick Garland said at a press conference announcing the charges.

Prosecutors revealed that by 2018, the bank failed to monitor more than 90 per cent of transactions on its network, activity worth more than $18tn. The compliance failures were so well-known internally that staff joked the bank's motto - "America's most convenient bank" - was marketed toward criminals.

In one case, officials said a customer used TD Bank to launder more than $470m in drug proceeds, making large cash deposits and bribing staff with gift cards. The scheme enabled payments from fentanyl users to flow back to drug networks in Mexico and China. In another instance, five bank employees helped issue dozens of ATM cards to facilitate $39m in illicit transfers to Colombia.

The settlement includes $1.8 billion to the justice department and $1.3 billion to the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, plus additional payments to other regulators. The bank will also face independent monitoring for four years.

TD Bank, which serves over 27.5 million customers globally and ranks as North America's sixth-largest bank by assets, saw its shares fall more than 5 per cent following the announcement.

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