TCF Bank moving headquarters to Sioux Falls

TCF Bank
TCF Bank is moving its headquarter from the Twin Cities to Siuox Falls, S.D. A spokeman for the company said the move is in an effort to help the bank's bottom line.
MPR Photo/Steve Mullis

TCF said the move will not change the number of employees it has in Minnesota. The Wayzata-based company has 3,000 employees in the state and the new South Dakota headquarters and branch bank will employ only 10 to 15 people.

South Dakota is known as a bank-friendly state with some of the nation's most relaxed laws on lending and taxes. TCF spokesman Jason Korstange said those laws will help the the bank's bottom line. Right now, the bank has to adjust its policies to conform with the various laws in each state where it operates. Korstange said the move will change that.

"It'll allow us to use the South Dakota laws and regulations throughout our eight states that we'll be doing business," Korstange said. "So that'll save us money on legal costs, operational costs and processing."

Sioux Falls has attracted several high profile banks over the last several decades because of it's friendly banking climate. Citibank has its credit card division there, employing more than 3,000 people. Wells Fargo also has a large credit card operation there.

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But Korstange said TCF has no plans to enter the credit card business as part of its South Dakota relocation. He also said the company will continue to pay the same amount of Minnesota taxes as before.

TCF's CEO Bill Cooper has long made it clear he doesn't like Minnesota's taxes. But Keith Getschel, with the Minnesota Revenue Department, said his analysis of the TCF move shows it will have a minimal impact on the company's corporate franchise tax payments to the state.

"Well I guess we don't see that there's going to be much of an advantage and I don't think they've talked about it," Getschel said. "What I've read from their standpoint, it isn't a tax matter."

The TCF Financial Corporation announced last November that it had received $360 million from the U.S. Treasury as part of the government's TARP program. Despite that, company officials say TCF is financially strong.

On the company's Web site, CEO Bill Cooper says TCF was not involved in any of the risky financial deals which collapsed some major U.S. banks.