| 29 January 2010

E*TRADE Financial Corporation's (ETFC) 24,000 United Kingdom accounts have been sold off to Toronto-Dominion's UK brokerage unit, TD Waterhouse (UK). The deal, which we first heard about through several postings like this, is consistent with E*TRADE's strategy to unwind it's "direct" international business and focus only on its U.S. business or those abroad who want to invest in U.S. securities.

E*TRADE left Germany in Q4 of 2009 and sold its Nordic unit to Saxo in December.

The deal reperesents roughly $753 million in assets. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. TD confirmed the news on their site today. TD Waterhouse (UK), established in 1997, is the second-largest broker in Great Britain and is part ofToronto-Dominion Financial Group, which also owns the U.S.-based brokerage TD Ameritrade (AMTD).

TD Waterhouse UK has 200,000 customers with over £3.77 billion ($6.07 billion) in customer assets under management.