# TCF Financial Corporation

TCF Financial Corporation, an acronym for Twin City Federal, was a bank holding company based in Detroit, Michigan. Its operating subsidiary, TCF Bank, operated 478 branches in Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, Colorado, Wisconsin, Ohio, and South Dakota. It also operated specialty lending and leasing businesses in all 50 states, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. TCF was acquired by Huntington Bancshares in June 2021.

## History

TCF Financial Corporation began business in 1923 as Twin City Building and Loan Association. In 1936, it was given a federal charter and renamed as Twin City Federal Savings and Loan Association.
In 1986, it became a public company.
In 1995, TCF acquired Great Lakes National Bank.
In 1997, the bank acquired Winthrop Resources Corporation in a $321 million transaction.
In 2002, the University of Michigan selected TCF as a preferred provider of banking services to students, faculty, and staff. The University terminated this agreement in 2015.
In 2004, the company acquired VGM Leasing.
In 2005, TCF Bank sold its Michigan headquarters building for $17 million.
In November 2006, TCF announced the sale of 10 branches in Battle Creek, Bay City, and Saginaw to Independent Bank.
Its first branch in Arizona was opened in Mesa, Arizona, on December 13, 2006.
In April 2008, TCF entered the commercial inventory finance business in the U.S. and Canada with the creation of TCF Inventory Finance.
In December 2011, TCF entered the indirect car finance business with the acquisition of Gateway One Lending & Finance.
The bank closed 37 branches in 2013 and another 33 in 2016. In some locations, it replaced the full-service branches with ATMs.
In August 2019, the bank merged into Chemical Financial Corporation, which assumed the TCF name. It was founded as Chemical State Savings Bank in 1917. In 1937, the headquarters of Chemical Bank was the site of a bank robbery by Tony Chebatoris, which resulted in Chebatoris being the only man to receive the death penalty in the state of Michigan. In 1964, the bank changed its name to Chemical Bank Trust. In 1974, the bank changed its name to Chemical Bank. The bank acquired O.A.K. Financial Corporation in May 2010, Northwestern Bank for $121 million in cash in October 2014, Monarch Community Bancorp for $27.2 million in stock in April 2015, Lake Michigan Financial Corporation for $187.4 million in cash and stock in June 2015, Talmer Bancorp for $1.7 billion in cash and stock in August 2016. The bank moved its headquarters from Midland, Michigan to Detroit in 2018.
In 2020, TCF sold all 7 of its branches in Arizona to Global Credit Union.
TCF was acquired by Huntington Bancshares in June 2021, and sold 13 branches in Michigan to Horizon Bank to gain regulatory approval for the merger.

## Controversies
### Overdraft fees

In 2010, TCF Bank was sued regarding overdraft charges. The bank processed higher amount transactions first in order to drain customer accounts faster, allowing TCF to then increase the number of total overdraft charges from each of the smaller amounts remaining, as well as charging overdraft fees on a daily basis rather than posing one flat fee. In 2011, TCF Bank changed its overdraft policy to include a daily $28 fee. After public backlash, the bank reversed its policy in 2012.

### Violation of Bank Secrecy Act

In January 2013, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency assessed a $10 million fine on TCF for violating the Bank Secrecy Act for failure to file suspicious activity reports in a timely fashion.

### Racial discrimination lawsuit

On January 21, 2020, an assistant manager at a TCF branch on Middlebelt Road in Livonia, Michigan, called police when Sauntore Thomas, an African-American account holder, attempted to deposit checks received as a settlement in a racial discrimination lawsuit. The branch manager was unable to validate the checks and claimed they were fraudulent. TCF also filed a police report for fraud against the customer despite verification from his attorney that the checks were genuine. Thomas filed a suit on January 22, 2020, seeking unspecified damages from the bank. On January 23, 2020, TCF issued an apology stating that local police should not have been involved; explaining that they take extra precautions involving large deposits and requests for cash.

## Sponsorship

TCF was the naming rights sponsor of the stadium at the University of Minnesota, now called Huntington Bank Stadium.
In February 2019, Chemical Financial acquired the naming rights to Cobo Center, which was renamed TCF Center in August 2019 and Huntington Place upon the merger with Huntington Bank.