Motley Fool on Commerce and M&T
Wednesday, October 25th, 2006Michael Leibert of the Motley Fool had a nice comparison of Diamir A Portfolio holding M&T Bank and Annapurna Portfolio holding Commerce Bancorp.
Compare M&T’s efficiency ratio, which measures operating expenses in relation to net interest and fee income, to that of Commerce Bancorp (NYSE: CBH). M&T’s ratio has ranged between 50% and 55% in recent years, while Commerce tops 70%. Of course, Commerce incurs high expenses building slick branches and maintaining long banking hours in the markets of Philadelphia, New York, and the surrounding suburbs in its attempts to compete in the backyard of the megabanks.