New blogger and veteran banker Vernon W. Hill II writes that he voted against the pending $8.5 billion acquisition of Commerce Bancorp Inc. by Toronto-Dominion Bank.
The deal was approved by Commerce shareholders Wednesday afternoon at a meeting at the bank's Commerce University in Mount Laurel at which lots of shareholders aired their concerns over the sale.
Hill, who did not attend the meeting, called the day "bittersweet."
On the one hand, we created a huge amount of value for our shareholders over the years. On the other, the magic of Commerce and the bond among its incredible team members and customers will soon begin to slowly fade away. Nothing, however, can take away our accomplishments and our legacy of reinventing of retail banking.
And he writes that he's been hearing about cost-cutting that Toronto-Dominion is planning "to chip away at the Commerce magic":
As T-D (whether it realizes it or not) transforms Commerce into just another bank, I'm afraid it might lose more in customer goodwill than it picks up in savings.
Hill joined the Bankstocks.com Web site as both a co-chairman and a contributing writer in January. And it doesn't look like this will be his last word on the bank he founded in 1973. The banking blog intends to maintain a "Commerce Watch" on its site.
