Canadian Arrogance Sinks Commerce

Recently, the local branches of Commerce Bank were re-branded to TD Bank. TD Banknorth purchased Commerce Bancorp of Cherry Hill last year; the company wanted to use the name TD Commerce but were sued by Massachusetts-based Commerce Bank & Trust. Meanwhile, today, Pennsylvania Commerce — a separate company that continues to operate Commerce Bank branches — purchased First Republic Bank of Philadelphia and will form Metro Bank.

Confused yet? Good. Here’s who you can blame it on, courtesy of Vernon Hill (who has been involved with nearly every one of these banks):

The merger comes two days after TD dropped the Commerce name from the branches it bought last year. “It took us 34 years to build a great brand and only 10 months for TD to destroy it,” Hill told me before the event. He blamed “Canadian corporate arrogance” — and praised Pennsylvania Commerce chairman and chief executive Gary L. Nalbandian for soldiering on with the Commerce name.

Turns out TD Banknorth is owned by Toronto-Dominion Bank (which also owns ~11% of the new Metro Bank — phew, I’m confused). It does all make sense now: Only Canadian corporate arrogance could be responsible for Commerce Bank’s changing its name.

Vernon Hill is back: PA Commerce Bank + 1st Republic = Metro Bank [Phillydeals]

Dude Looks Like A Lady

The FBI — they investigate all bank robberies — has released the photograph of The Cross-Dressing Bandit who robbed Commerce Bank in West Philly.

We can only hope he will go on a slew of crimes and become the newest media meme to travel through the local press. The Cross-Dressing Bandit apparently takes his cues from Barry Bonds, and also carried a purse/man bag in order to really sell the robbery. But what if this is just a really ugly woman and not a dude in drag?

Man dressed as woman robs bank [6 ABC]

Commerce Bank Finally Robbed Again

The Penn branch of Commerce Bank (at 38th and Walnut streets) was robbed yesterday by a man with a blonde wig dressed as a woman.

Phew, I say. It had apparently hadn’t been robbed since 2004; the branch was robbed eight times between 1996 and 2004. (It was also robbed twice in one week in April of ‘03.) No word on what led to the four-year drought of robberies at Commerce Bank, but, finally, the fabled Curse of the No Bank Robberies On Penn’s Campus is over.

News Brief: Commerce Bank on campus robbed [DP]
Busy Commerce Bank a robbery target [DP]

While You Were Reading This, Somebody Purchased A New HDTV (And A Warranty!) With Your Credit Card

Hey, are you a Commerce Bank customer? Well, whoops, an employee issued personal information to an outside party. The company says a small amount of its 3 million customers were affected.

Of course, even if you avoid that, you might not be able to avoid a credit card skimmer, which was recently installed on a Wawa ATM in Delaware. A skimmer was attached to the ATM’s card reader; it transmitted information to outside parties who then clone the bank cards and withdraw money.

If someone steals your information and all your monty money, though, you can just go and steal somebody else’s. Like a pyramid scheme!

Commerce Bank Warning Customers Of Info. Theft [CBS 3]
Theft devices found on ATMs in Bear Wawa [News-Journal]