Officials have informed that TD Bank Financial Group in Canada acquired the operations of three failed Florida banks, among eight seized by U. S. regulators.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Toronto-based TD acquired the banking operations of AmericanFirst Bank in Clermont, First Federal Bank of North Florida in Palatka and Riverside National Bank of Florida in Fort Pierce.

Ed Clark, chief executive and president of TD, said that the acquisitions "add quality stores to our existing retail network in target markets, allow us to accelerate our organic growth in Florida by five years and come with limited downside credit risk."

It was further reported that Riverside National has 58 branches in Florida and had assets of $3.42 billion and deposits of $2.76 billion at the end of 2009. The three-branch AmericanFirst Bank had $90.5 million in assets and total deposits of $81.9 million deposits at the end of 2009, while First Federal, with eight branches, had assets of $393.3 million and total deposits of $324.2 million.

Banks in Michigan and Massachusetts were also seized by Regulators, the first failures in those states since the recession began, and California and Washington, bringing to 50 the number of banks that have failed this year.

The report further noted that People's United Bank of Bridgeport, Conn., agreed to assume $233.2 million of deposits and essentially all of the $268 million in assets of shuttered Butler Bank, a four-branch institution in Lowell, Mass.

In California, Center Bank of Los Angeles assumed the deposits of Innovative Bank, a four-branch bank in Oakland with $268.9 million in assets, while San Francisco-based Union Bank assumed the deposits of Tamalpais Bank in San Rafael, which had seven branches and $628.9 million in assets. (With Inputs from Agencies)