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Canadian owner puts its stamp on Commerce Bank

Starting yesterday, Commerce Bank branches in the Philadelphia region began trading their red-and-white color scheme for green and white. The signature "C" is going, to be replaced with a "TD" as Canada's TD Bank Financial Group puts its stamp on Cherry Hill's Commerce Bancorp Inc., which it bought for $7.1 billion in March.

Commerce Bank's signature "C" will be replaced with a "TD" for Canada's TD Bank Financial Group, which bought Commerce.
Commerce Bank's signature "C" will be replaced with a "TD" for Canada's TD Bank Financial Group, which bought Commerce.Read more
    by Harold Brubaker, Inquirer Staff Writer
    Published 

Starting yesterday, Commerce Bank branches in the Philadelphia region began trading their red-and-white color scheme for green and white.

The signature "C" is going, to be replaced with a "TD" as Canada's TD Bank Financial Group puts its stamp on Cherry Hill's Commerce Bancorp Inc., which it bought for $7.1 billion in March.

TD is keeping Commerce's tagline, "America's most convenient bank," along with the extended weekend and evening hours, Bharat Masrani, TD's president and chief executive officer, said yesterday.

The Toronto company has a marketing budget of more than $20 million for the launch of the TD Bank brand, which is also replacing TD Banknorth, except in New England, where the rebranding will occur a year from now.

"We want to make sure the brand is launched in an appropriate way," Masrani said.

Through Tuesday, TD is rebranding 575 branches in the Mid-Atlantic, in the Washington area, and in Florida.

In the Philadelphia region, TD Banknorth branches will also become TD Bank branches. Altogether, TD Bank has nearly 170 branches in the Philadelphia area, ranking second in deposits behind Wachovia as of June 30.

TD Bank had $15.24 billion in deposits at branches in the eight-county Philadelphia region, down slightly from $15.97 billion combined the year before in Commerce and TD Banknorth branches.

Mike Carbone, president of TD Bank's metro Philadelphia region, said the bank lost some so-called investment dollars to competitors paying rates that the bank could not make money on. Investment dollars are funds that governments and corporations deposit for short periods of time.

"We had a banking environment where things got out of hand. The premium on deposits was the highest I've ever seen," said Carbone, who started at Commerce 16 years ago. "It wasn't that we lost our customer, it was just the investment dollars."