TD Bank Says AI Is Cutting Mortgage Approvals From 15 Hours to 3 Minutes

TD Bank’s latest earnings call suggested the industry is moving into a more operational phase in its use of artificial intelligence, where AI is increasingly tied to loan approvals, fraud management and the economics of customer acquisition.

CEO Raymond Chun said on the Thursday (May 28) that “I believe AI will transform our operations, make our colleagues more efficient, our processes faster and our products and services better.”

The comments came as TD highlighted a growing list of AI deployments across the organization, including agentic AI tools that reduced mortgage pre-adjudication cycle times from roughly 15 hours to three minutes. The bank also said it has more than 40,000 employees using Copilot tools internally and more than 7,000 engineers using AI in software development workflows.

Growth in Card Balances

Cards continued to emerge as a key growth engine for the bank on both sides of the border.

In the United States, TD said proprietary credit card balances rose 18% year over year, driven by customer acquisition. CFO Kelvin Tran said new bank card account acquisition increased 32% from a year ago, while the integration of Nordstrom card clients onto TD’s servicing platform marked “an important strategic milestone” for scaling the franchise.

Tran told analysts the Nordstrom conversion could help TD pursue additional strategic card partnerships while lowering long-term servicing costs.

The broader consumer banking franchise also showed signs of resilience despite ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty. Canadian personal and commercial banking delivered record quarterly revenue, pre-tax pre-provision profit and earnings, supported by higher loan and deposit volumes. Average deposits rose 3% year over year, while average loan volumes increased 6%.

In U.S. banking, deposits excluding sweeps and targeted runoff businesses rose 1% year over year, while middle-market lending balances increased 13%. TD also pointed to continued momentum in home equity lending and business banking.

The earnings release showed the bank continuing to balance growth investments as adjusted revenue rose 6% to $16.6 billion. The bank said it remains on track to exceed its previously stated 6% to 8% earnings per share growth target for fiscal 2026 if macroeconomic conditions remain stable.

Management also continued to emphasize the long-term importance of structural cost reductions and automation. TD said it is targeting $2 billion to $2.5 billion in annualized structural cost savings over the medium term, with AI expected to contribute more than $500 million in annualized savings and a similar amount in revenue uplift.  Shares were down about 0.5% in early trading Thursday.

Analysts engaged management during the Q&A on whether AI could ultimately improve the bank’s profitability profile beyond historical levels.

Chun said the bank is already “tracking well ahead of pace” on its AI targets and sees opportunities across “credit, contact centers, fraud, and frontline productivity.” He added that TD is increasingly focused on AI deployments that “transform end-to-end experiences, drive lower unit costs, and are scalable across the enterprise.”

Looking ahead, management maintained its guidance for fiscal 2026 and said the bank expects continued momentum across core businesses, including cards and commercial lending, even as it continues to invest heavily in AML remediation and governance systems.