Here's what the UK operation (TD Waterhouse) put out to customers this week:

Over the past few months we have experienced unprecedented spikes in activity as a consequence of the extreme market volatility and associated trading volumes. During recent weeks these levels of activity have not only continued to increase but they have done so at a sustained level. Our website performance has been impacted and in turn so have our call waiting times.

Your feedback has been direct and to the point - our platform has not performed to the level you need and have come to expect from us.

That said I know that many of our competitors have also experienced issues and I understand this to be an industry wide challenge.

This is our number one priority and a challenge we will continue to meet head on.

Over the past few days I have posted various messages on our website to keep you informed of our continued effort to improve our website performance and maintain your ability to trade through us.

Rest assured I will keep posting my updates until you are satisfied with our level of performance.

Thank you for your patience and for your continued loyalty to TD Waterhouse.

Angus Rigby
Chief Executive Officer
TD Waterhouse Investor Services (Europe) Ltd