Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian banks may stand alone among global lenders in not requiring government assistance to raise capital amid the credit crisis, Toronto-Dominion Bank Chief Executive Officer Edmund Clark said.

“Canada will emerge, as long as we don’t do anything stupid, as the only country in the world where the banks didn’t need government help,” Clark, 61, told investors today at a conference in Toronto sponsored by RBC Capital Markets.

Canada’s biggest banks have taken pretax writedowns of about C$16.2 billion ($13.7 billion) on their debt investments since the third quarter of 2007, a fraction of the $1 trillion in credit losses and writedowns recorded by lenders and insurers worldwide.

Commerzbank AG, Germany’s second-biggest lender, said today it will receive 10 billion euros ($13.7 billion) of additional capital from the German government, which will hold a 25 percent stake in the bank.

Investors will say, “somehow you stumbled your way through here and did this right,” Clark said. “I think that’s worth fighting for.”

Canadian banks may still have to raise additional cash, increasing regulatory capital to thwart U.S. short-seller investors, Clark said. The bank sold C$1.4 billion of common shares in December, and this week said it will raise as much as C$300 million in preferred shares.

“If that means we have to raise non-common Tier 1 ratio to look pretty, I’ll do that,” Clark said. “It’s stupid, but I’ll do that in the interest of my shareholders.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Sean B. Pasternak in Toronto at spasternak@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 8, 2009 12:30 EST