Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services raised its ratings on the Toronto-Dominion Bank and TD Banknorth.

The rating agency says that the upgrade, “reflects TD Bank’s ability to consistently deliver strong core operating results, conservative credit risk culture, solid risk governance, and well-executed corporate strategy. The ratings also reflect the challenging performance at TD Banknorth although its proposed privatization by TD Bank speaks to the level of commitment in the U.S.”

“We believe that TD Bank is well positioned to meet or exceed its 2007 financial targets,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Lidia Parfeniuk. “The bank should end 2007 on a stronger footing once again relative to most of its peers in domestic retail banking,” she added.

Revenue growth (albeit slower than 2006) should be driven by the significant domestic retail franchise and wealth management operations, S&P said. “However, normalizing credit costs and the wholesale and investment bank’s potentially weaker performance could offset these strengths, as TD Bank may not benefit from the same strong level of securities gains and trading revenues as it did in 2006,” it added.

TD Bank’s greatest challenge today, after it successfully dealt with the problematic U.S. syndicated lending portfolio four years ago, is TD Banknorth’s unsatisfactory performance and competitive stance, S&P suggested. However, the proposed privatization of TD Banknorth and its strong strategically important status resulted in the lift in the rating notching.

“The current focus is to reposition TD Banknorth for organic growth and pause on the acquisition front,” it said. “The privatization will facilitate the closer oversight geared toward improving TD Banknorth’s product suite and optimizing the branch network to ultimately bring more sophistication to processes and enhance the bank’s competitive position.”

“In addressing TD Banknorth’s growth challenges, TD Bank will spend 2007 focusing on expense control, pricing strategies, and business process improvements, among other initiatives, with the objective to get TD Banknorth to a sufficient size in all of its operating markets,” it noted.

S&P said that the stable outlook reflects TD Bank’s continued demonstration that it is well-positioned to sustain its strong financial performance supported by its solid domestic retail franchise. However, it added that TD Banknorth’s weak performance likely will continue to be a slight drag on TD Bank’s short-term profitability. “However, we believe that the bank’s initiatives to bolster TD Banknorth — a long-term strategy — will result in an operationally, competitively, and financially stronger institution. We will be looking to TD Bank to maintain its capital discipline while focusing on repositioning TD Banknorth for growth,” it concluded.