(August 17 – 09:40 ET) – TD Bank Financial Group is reporting strong results for the third quarter.

TD’s net income on a cash basis was $511 million, or 80¢ a common share, compared with 66¢ a share last year, excluding the gain from the sale of 11.5% of TD Waterhouse Group. Return on equity came in at 18.1%.

Net interest income rose 23% to $180 million, thanks to the acquisition of Canada Trust. Other income rose $567 million or 53% to $1.6 billion, pushing total revenue to $2.6 billion. While revenue grew 41%, expenses are up 43%.

Within the “other income” category, trading income from TD Securities increased 73% this quarter, reaching $328 million. This was offset by higher associated financing costs in net interest income, which resulted in total trading-related revenue increasing 28% compared with the third quarter last year. Net investment securities gains almost doubled to $115 million from $65 million last year.

Brokerage revenues from both discount and full-service operations grew strongly. TD Waterhouse contributed $78 million to the increase in other income. TD Evergreen, the bank’s full-service broker, saw brokerage revenues rise 43%, or $16 million, over last year. TD Asset Management saw mutual fund management fees increase 95% to $127 million.

“TD Waterhouse delivered excellent year-over-year gains while reinforcing its position as one of the largest global discount brokers as it successfully executed aggressive expansion strategies in key markets such as the United Kingdom, Japan and India,” said TD CEO Charlie Baillie. “TD Securities delivered solid levels of revenues and income for the quarter, with particularly strong results in foreign exchange, merchant banking and derivative trading. TD Asset Management achieved very good results while planning for the integration of the TD and Canada Trust mutual funds businesses into a new family of funds called TD Mutual Funds.” That integration is scheduled to be completed in October.

Overall the CT integration remains on schedule, according to Ed Clark, newly appointed chief operating officer at TD. “We have now successfully integrated most head office functions, as well as the brokerage businesses, and are on track to merge mutual fund operations before the fiscal year-end.” he said. The integration of the retail branch networks is scheduled to begin in the second fiscal quarter of 2001.