TD Waterhouse's Banner Year -- and Bull's Eve Focus

Its early embrace of self-directed investors using a strategy of wired wireless as well as is making this broker a bundle It's no wonder, really, that Frank Petrilli doesn't like to comment on the competition. The president chief operating officer of TD Waterhouse is hip to the media game naturally wily. He also seems well aware that his business is so competitive--and so in transition--that the best way to handle is probably to say very little about the next guy. Still, Petrilli wasn't all that shy at the recent Retail Delivery Conference. There, he thanked bankers for getting in comments about customer acquisition service. Nor was he unwilling to make comparisons when he implied that his company's approach to customer service, it's adoption of a clicks bricks strategy, its investment in wireless technology was filling a void of commercial banks' own making. In fact, TD Waterhouse is somewhat in a position to postulate on success. Formed by the 1996 acquisition of Waterhouse Securities by Toronto-Dominion Bank, bolstered by seven acquisitions around the globe in the time since, is the third largest online broker in the U.S. 13.3% of the U.S. market, a stock price of $16.87 per share as of this writing, is cash rich enough to make acquisitions, too. And the #2 worldwide discount broker's not afraid of technology. At a time when many banks full-service brokerage firms are attempting a toe dip into the Internet emerging wireless technologies to hang onto customers, TD Waterhouse is already in the deep end of the ocean. Specifically, it's made investments in both wireless technology electronic communication network technology for after-hours trading, reached out to markets as diverse as India Japan, opened up new accounts in North America, all while eyeballing Europe the Far East for next-stage growth. All this, notes Petrilli with some satisfaction, has occurred in the wake of the Internet's success, which has expanded the company's reach cut distribution costs. With the arrival of the Internet, the investor got access confidence, says the chief operating officer. The Monday that preceded the telephone interview with ABA Banking Journal illustrates the point: when the discount broker opened for business, about 70,000 orders were waiting in queue. That was typical--and that is the power of the Net. Focusing on improving its infrastructure, reaching the minds wallets of the self-directed investor is making TD Waterhouse significant gains: the firm landed net income of $97.3 million in 1999, up from $48.7 million in the previous year. Still, some analysts question just how different the broker is from market leader, Schwab. Again, Petrilli doesn't make comparisons, but points out what he sees as self-evident truths. Our business model revolves around the customer. We're successful because we make that relationship work. provide investment services convenient access rather than selling products, he said. Petrilli maintains that this is not the model typically employed by banks, at least not in the past. Banks still own the deposit base in this country, he points out, and when they exclusively owned the deposit base, they paid low interest charged customers fees for access. He adds: We find that when we handle our customers' assets fairly, provide unbiased sources of investment information, they are more than happy to give us more business. That, by the way, is the it that, in Petrilli's estimation, bankers hadn't yet gotten. Internet world The company went public last June. (The brokerage, headquartered in New York City, has T.D. Bank, Toronto as its principal shareholder.) Raising $1 billion, invested $750 million of that into its operations. …

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