TD Bank, a subsidiary of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, has announced plans to open an office in New York for its AI research and development centre Layer 6, which it acquired in 2018.

The bank said that moving Layer 6, which currently operates from its head office in Toronto, would enable it to better support its US operations.

It added that the new location would allow Layer 6 to take advantage of an expanded pool of talent to work on banking innovation using AI.

The Layer 6 office, set to formally open later this year, will act as a workspace for around 20 data scientists, applied machine learning scientists, and genAI implementation specialists.

"Our commitment to being a leader in the AI space puts TD at the forefront of banking innovation, and Layer 6 is critical to our ability to deliver that innovation for our customers," said Luke Gee, chief analytics & AI officer at TD Bank. "With recent advances in areas like Generative AI, we continue to leverage the potential of this game-changing technology through the work of colleagues across the Bank, with Layer 6 continually driving thought leadership and breaking new ground.”

The move comes after the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CommBank) last month launched a US tech hub in Seattle in a bid to advance the bank’s technology leadership.

CommBank said the tech hub will act as a gateway for the bank to work together with global technology giants, including AWS, Anthropic, and Microsoft, as well as foster innovation exchanges and broaden employee learning.

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