Dive Brief:
- TD will give all of its full-time and part-time non-executive U.S.-, U.K.- and Canada-based employees a one-time bonus of five shares of the bank’s stock to recognize their "extraordinary efforts" throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a memo seen Wednesday by Bloomberg and The Globe and Mail.
- The incentive, worth around $363 based on Wednesday’s closing price, gives employees “the opportunity to become owners and participate in the longer-term performance of the bank,” TD CEO Bharat Masrani wrote in the memo. One of the bank's tenets, Masrani said in the memo is for employees to "act like an owner."
- TD employees based outside the U.S., Canada and Britain will receive cash payments, The Globe and Mail reported.
Dive Insight:
TD Bank’s stock award harks back to the pandemic's earlier days, when several banks awarded bonuses, particularly to front-line employees who couldn't perform their job duties remotely.
The incentive could accrue more value. Shares of TD, which trade on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges, have soared almost 25% this year, The Globe and Mail reported Wednesday.
TD wouldn't be the first to give staff a pandemic-related stock award. Bank of America in January offered a stock award as a COVID-era thank-you but limited it to employees earning more than $100,000 a year.
TD, in late March 2020, offered a two-installment, $1,000 bonus — paid in April and May — to employees deemed essential and unable to work from home.
JPMorgan Chase that month offered a bonus of the same amount and structure to branch employees and those making less than $60,000 a year.
Citi similarly offered a $1,000 bonus to U.S. employees who making less than $60,000 a year but without the installment plan.
Wells Fargo at the time opted to give a $600 pretax payment to all full-time U.S. employees who earn base compensation of less than $100,000 and worked for the bank all of the previous year. Part-time workers received a $300 payment. Front-line employees got an additional $200 per pay period for up to five paychecks.
Capital One chose to give branch employees an additional $10 per hour for a limited time. U.S. Bank gave temporary 20% pay raises to 30,000 employees in branches, call centers, field offices and critical service locations.
But while some banks stopped there, TD revisited the idea, giving its full- and part-time employees another $500 bonus last October.
Bank of America in January gave a one-time bonus of $750 to employees earning less than $100,000 as thanks for their work through the pandemic. But the incentive came months after the bank saw blowback for retiring a $200, twice-monthly pandemic supplement for all branch and call center employees.
CEO Brian Moynihan touted the front-line bonus a week earlier in Chief Executive magazine, saying taking care of employees was his "number one" priority during the pandemic. The publication named him its CEO of the year.
