TD Bank to close 3 Maine branches as part of 15-state streamlining

File Photo / William Hall TD Bank last year closed its branch near Monument Square in Portland, leaving one location downtown. The bank now plans to close three branches in southern Maine by April.

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By William Hall

TD Bank, which has one of the largest financial institution footprints in Maine, will soon close three of its 44 branches here as part of a sweeping cutback across 15 states.

According to a filing with the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the bank will permanently shutter retail banking locations at a Shaw’s supermarket, 600 Center St., Auburn; at 229 Elm St., Biddeford; and at a Hannaford supermarket, 35 Elm St., Brunswick.

In a statement emailed Monday to Mainebiz, a TD Bank spokeswoman confirmed the closures and said they are among 81 being made by April 23 throughout TD Bank’s Maine-to-Florida territory. That number represents 7% of its 1,223 branches.

In addition to three branches in Maine, 20 others are closing in New England: six each in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and two in Vermont.

The bank did not provide information about the number of workers who may be affected by the closures, or how many might be redeployed. TD Bank employs 3,200 people in Maine, and has the largest market share of any bank in the state, 14%. Maine assets are about $5.2 billion, according to the 2021 Mainebiz Book of Lists.

Like many industries, banking has made big changes in its brick-and-mortar businesses because of the pandemic.

Some banks, including several in Maine, have found opportunities to expand. But many have closed physical locations as the public health crisis has spurred customers to bank online, a trend that was growing even before that.

Two weeks ago, Androscoggin Savings Bank notified regulators it plans to close a branch at 242 Bath Road in Brunswick.

TD Bank had avoided the widespread shutdowns of its national competitors. The bank closed only 13 branches in 2020, according to the federal data, including one in Portland. Meanwhile, Wells Fargo closed over 320 retail banking locations and PNC Bank closed 160. Neither of those banks have branches in Maine.

At TD Bank on Monday, Vice President Miranda Garrison told Mainebiz, “We regularly evaluate our existing TD Bank stores and new locations … In reaching a decision to close specific TD Bank stores, we consider many business factors, including the number of customers visiting our stores, transaction volumes, the location's proximity to other TD Bank stores and the number of customers who use multiple store locations.”

Cherry Hill, N.J.-based TD Bank is a subsidiary of Canadian multinational Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE, TSX: TD), which had the equivalent of $1.3 trillion in assets on Oct. 31, 2020.

The bank, ranked the 26th-largest in the world, has grown over the past two decades through a series of acquisitions, including the 2004 purchase of Portland-based Banknorth. Portland served as one of the bank’s two U.S. headquarters until 2013.

Mainebiz Senior Writer Renee Cordes contributed to this report.