I am one of those little old ladies who, if I had been born a couple of generations earlier would have invested in the old typical widows and orphans stocks like IBM or Bell Telephone back in the sixties. But, I am a baby boomer so the twenty-first century version of this kind of investing landed me with some Canadian bank stocks, specifically TD Canada Trust where I have been a customer for decades.

I’m not a speculator. I prefer my hard-earned savings parked in safe, long-term investments that I can access and live on in my retirement, since I do not have a supplementary pension plan like bank or government employees. Unfortunately, the greedy, blame-shifting corporate big-wigs like CEO Bharat Masrani at TD Canada Trust have broken the trust I put in them and yanked my safety net.

For those who may not be familiar with what happened, the grand poo-bahs at TD Bank made some very questionable decisions about what to do with my life savings. In fact, what they did has been deemed criminal by the U.S. Attorney-General and the various governing bodies that oversee banking and financial institutions. TD Bank knowingly allowed and facilitated extensive money laundering and other dubious financial transactions by criminal organizations over a period of several years.

Despite the spin doctors and senior bank executives assuring bank customers and investors that there was nothing to worry about and informing us they were abiding by a professional code of ethics, they were obviously covering up some nefarious transactions. The penalty for their choices is a fine of more than US $13 billion!!!! That fine will be paid with my money that I saved and invested in a supposedly safe Canadian bank and hoped to benefit from through dividends. They clearly knew they were operating in shady business dealings and yet they persisted.

Does this scenario sound familiar? If you were alive and earning money in 2008 you will never forget the hit ordinary citizens took for the American banking and financial institution scandals that wiped out billions of dollars of hard-earned savings for everyday workers. After the scandals became public, those responsible from the financial institutions who duped and misled ordinary working people got off scot-free.

The American banking scandals left Canadians feeling a bit too smug. It looks like it has happened again but this time in our own backyard. The blameless shareholders like me are the ones who will be paying the penalty. Those earning the big bucks, stock benefits, and bonuses at the financial institutions who squandered our money were able to keep and enjoy their mansions and pricey vacation homes. Meanwhile, many ordinary citizens lost their modest homes and life savings.

What now?

Investments made by baby boomers and others in TD Canada Trust and other Canadian banks have traditionally been a safe and dependable place to invest our savings over the long term, just like the IBM and Bell Telephone stocks were sixty years ago. We have been counting on this nest egg to finance our RRIFs and other retirement investments. Thanks to the jerks and criminals managing our money, that security is now in jeopardy.

According to Rob Carrick in The Globe and Mail TD shares traded this week at close to the same price as a year ago, which means the bank’s shareholders missed the 36.6 percent increase for the financial sector over the 12 months to Sept. 30. Yep. We (retired boomers and other investors) pay for the bank’s bad judgment.

If TD Canada Trust made a mistake expanding into the United States and if they made further mistakes by not adhering to their code of ethics regarding money laundering, they should immediately stop with the side-stepping explanations, vague apologies and promises to do better. The people at the bank responsible for this prolonged abuse of power and mishandling of their investors’ life savings should have to pay a personal penalty.

At the very least, those responsible for this fiasco should lose their jobs along with their hefty paycheques, stock benefits, and bonuses. It is so un-Canadian to betray your bank customers and fellow citizens and lie about it. The Canadian banking system was designed specifically to protect us against this very occurrence. How did this happen?

TD Canada Trust abused its customers and investors, and they disgraced Canada and our value system in front of the entire world. Where were the overseers, our so-called strict banking regulators, the Boards of Directors, the accountable auditors? There are a lot of alligators in this swamp and every single one of them should be held to account and penalized for their negligence.

If it were up to me, the senior executives of TD Canada Trust, starting right at the top, and their rogue band of merry bankers and enablers would be paraded down Bay Street with shaved heads and signs around their necks declaring their betrayal. But, because they are mainly rich, old men they will get a slap on the wrist. I hope I am wrong, but I doubt it. Once again, the little guy like me takes it in the neck. Shame on everyone involved.  Without severe penalties for the guilty parties, there are no guarantees this will not happen again. Should we “Lock ’em Up”? I vote “Yes”!