BUZZ-Canada's TD Bank climbs after accelerating CEO transition

Updates

Shares of Canadian lender TD Bank TD.TO rise 2.9% to C$81.93

TD says CEO-designate Raymond Chun would take charge on Feb. 1, over two months earlier than initially planned

Bank also slashed outgoing CEO Bharat Masrani's annual salary by 89%, while refreshing its board with new faces

TD last month warned of a challenging 2025 and suspended its medium-term earnings forecast

Last year, the bank was hit by a $3 bln penalty and a rare imposition of an asset cap over anti-money laundering issues

TD has a market cap of C$143.5 bln ($99.62 bln) vs Royal Bank of Canada's RY.TO C$245.5 bln, according to data compiled by LSEG

BofA Global Research upgrades TD to "buy" from "neutral" on increased confidence that new leadership under Chun can fix the compliance issues

Jefferies analyst John Aiken says Chun getting the keys to the bank sooner and the injection of fresh blood into the board is a positive step

Announcement infers that TD's remediation path will remain a big push and could spell some relief for investors, Aiken says

TD stock slipped 10.6% in 2024

($1 = 1.4405 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru)

((ArasuKannagi.Basil@thomsonreuters.com;))