Jeffrey Bernstein

Goodbye, Commerce Bancorp: Vernon Hill Mourns the End of an Era

Vern: As an institutional investor in Commerce Bank I salute you. It was a pleasure to be an investor in a company that revolutionized the business model of it's industry and flattened or enlightened avery competitor whose path it crossed. I still tell people about my due diligence trip to southern New Jersey where I saw an old Mellon Branch with a lightbulb driven digital clock on top, half of whose bulbs where out. It was so quite there was tumbleweed rolling across the empty parking lot. Across the street there was a brand new gleaming Commerce Branch, with 4 drive through lanes......every one of them packed in addition to the line out the front door of the bank. You served financial services to them their way! Always a winning strategy.

Salute