Thomas Clarkson, a major participant in the growing Toronto commerce, served as one of the first directors from 1856 through to 1858, steering the Bank through the depression of 1857.

Core customers remained farmers, merchants, and processors of farm products (millers, brewers, distillers).

With the maturing of the Canadian economy and the opening of northern Ontario and the West in the 1880s and 1890s, the banks became more aggressive in loans to resource industries, utilities, and manufacturing.

In the first decade of the twentieth century, the banks rapidly expanded their branch networks in central Canada and across the west.

[4] The Bank of Toronto Building in Victoria, British Columbia built in 1951 is on the Registry of Historical Places of Canada.

[6] The Bank of Toronto Vault in Turtle Mountain, Manitoba, completed in 1919, is on the Registry of Historical Places of Canada.

The building at 78 Church Street was listed on the City of Toronto Heritage Property Inventory on August 14, 1991, in hopes of preserving some of its historical physical attributes.