RankingBanking 26 Digital - Flipbook - Page 13
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“We’ve been in business 160-plus years. We manage the business to
be around another 160 years.”
Charles “Chuck” Kim, Commerce Bank
the 300 largest publicly traded banks by asset
Nathan Race, who follows the bank as a managing
size. Each bank is ranked using four metrics:
director and analyst at Piper Sandler & Co.
return on average total assets, return on average
John Rodis, an analyst and managing director
tangible common equity, tangible common equity
at Brean Capital, says he’s been following the
to tangible assets, and nonperforming assets to
bank since he started his career in St. Louis with
loans and other real estate owned.
Stifel Nicholas in the late ‘90s. “Easily from a
But Commerce taking the top spot this year
isn’t a fluke. The bank has consistently outper-
fundamental standpoint, they’re one of the best
performing banks in the country,” he says.
formed other banks on those metrics over the
years.
Commerce’s return on average assets for the
A Family Legacy
To understand Commerce’s success, it’s import-
past 30 years dipped below 1% only once — in
ant to understand the bank’s roots. The Kemper
2009, when it bottomed out at 0.9%. It sailed
family traces its ties to the bank back to 1881,
through the 2007-09 financial crisis relatively un-
when an entrepreneur and physician named
scathed compared to other banks. It also outper-
Dr. William Stone Woods bought a controlling
formed most banks in its asset class in 2020, the
interest in the Kansas City Savings Association.
year of the onslaught of Covid-19. Its return on
He renamed it Bank of Commerce, according to a
tangible common equity has been in the mid-teens
book commissioned by the bank and published in
since 2021, ending 2025 with 16.39%.
2015. Woods was careful to teach his employees
And while some banks juice profits by lowering
about the importance of credit. He wrote to a
capital or stomaching worse credit, Commerce’s
nephew: “The fact is most banks make enough
capital ratio in 2025 was higher than 116 of the
money if they keep out of bad debts, and as I said
142 banks in its asset class; its asset quality ratio
to you by word of mouth, I will forgive you for
was better than 137 banks.
almost anything but bad debts.” Commerce Bank
“The model’s been quite deliberate over the
survived multiple bank panics and the Great De-
course of several decades, and it really shows
pression, all before the Federal Deposit Insurance
through in terms of their results and just the
Corp. was created in 1933. The Comptroller of
overall profitability profile of the franchise,” says
the Currency briefly closed the bank during the
