[EastSideHBG]

Ah yes, yet another bank trying to conquer the world!!! The fast gorwth rate is not a good thing IMO. Sometimes a business can just grow too fast, and this creates a somewhat chaotic atmosphere and the customers/services get lost in the shuffle.


Commerce Bank plans more growth

Saturday, May 22, 2004
BY BILL SULON
Of The Patriot-News

Commerce Bank/Harrisburg plans to build three branches this year and four more next year as it aims to double the number of offices it operates and more than triple its deposits by 2009.

The expansion will take place through construction, not acquisitions.

"We don't try to buy anyone else's junk and remodel it," Gary Nalbandian, chairman and CEO, said at the bank's annual meeting yesterday at the Radisson Penn Harris Hotel & Convention Center in East Pennsboro Twp.

Commerce Bank, the retail banking unit of Pennsylvania Commerce Bancorp, expects to open branches this year in York, Lebanon and Reading. The bank has 23 offices and $937 million in deposits. It plans to have 54 offices and $3.4 billion in deposits by 2009.

Over the next several years, Commerce plans to add more branches in the Harrisburg, Mechanicsburg and Middletown areas, "and then we start to look at the world," Nalbandian said.

He explained that the world, from Commerce's standpoint, includes Lancaster and State College.

Commerce Bank shares the same business model as its larger affiliate, Commerce Bancorp Inc. in Cherry Hill, N.J. The banks have the same red "C" logo, advertising campaign and architectural firm, InterArch, which is owned by Shirley Hill, wife of Vernon Hill, chairman and CEO of Commerce Bancorp in New Jersey.

Vernon Hill and his business affiliates are the largest shareholder in Pennsylvania Commerce Bancorp, with a 14 percent stake.

Neither bank grows through acquisitions, Nalbandian said after the meeting. Instead, they build branches after researching the targeted areas and the deposit shares of nearby competitors, he said.

Starting June 1, investors who buy Pennsylvania Commerce Bancorp stock through the bank's stock-purchase plan will be eligible to buy shares valued up to $5,000 every month at a 3 percent discount. Currently, investors can buy stock through the program once every three months.