Commerce passes Citizens in market share

Commerce Bank has supplanted Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania as the Philadelphia region's second-biggest bank by deposits, government data showed today.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said in its annual market-share tally that the Cherry Hill bank had $15.01 billion in deposits at 127 branches in the eight-county Philadelphia area on June 30.

That was an 11 percent increase over $13.51 billion in deposits at 121 branches the year before. The gain illustrated that Commerce, which agreed last week to an $8.5 billion buyout, was able to continue its fast growth here, even as it faced regulatory scrutiny for certain business practices.

Citizens, a unit of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group P.L.C., added four branches to bring its total here to 189, but deposits fell $720.35 million, or 5 percent, to $14.05 billion. That decline occurred despite a jump to $3.13 billion from $2.78 billion at its main branch at 2001 Market St.

Spokeswoman Pamela Browner-Crawley said in a statement that Citizens last year moved "a good portion" of its business deposits into accounts that were not counted by the FDIC. "Therefore, our overall growth is not reflected in the FDIC deposit-report numbers," she said.

Total deposits at banks in the region rose 4.5 percent to $116.79 billion from $111.74 billion. Those figures exclude the online-only GMAC Bank in Horsham. Despite the prevalence of direct deposit for paychecks and other forms of electronic banking, 32 additional bank branches reported deposits for the 12-month period.

Since 1997, there has been a net gain of 199 branches in the region, which includes Burlington, Camden and Gloucester Counties in New Jersey and Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties in Pennsylvania.

Wachovia Bank, of Charlotte, N.C., strengthened its hold on the No. 1 spot, with $24.53 billion, up 10 percent from $22.24 billion the year before. However, all but $314.93 million of that growth came from two Center City branches.

Spokeswoman Barbara Nate said earlier this week that Wachovia aggregated business deposits from the region in those branches. She did not return calls today seeking further clarification.

Wachovia had 207 branches, down from 223 the year before. It had 246 five years ago.

Sovereign Bank ranked fourth overall, thanks to $7.01 billion - or 69 percent of its total - at the headquarters branch at 2000 Market St. Mark R. McCollom, Sovereign's chief financial officer said today that most of that money was wholesale deposits, which it buys from other banks because it is cheaper than borrowing.

In the seven suburban counties, Sovereign was in sixth place, behind PNC Bank and Bank of America Corp. Commerce kept the top spot in suburban market share, with 17.05 percent compared with Wachovia's 15.42 percent.

Commerce's future partner, TD Banknorth, had $965.62 million in deposits at 41 branches, down from $1.02 billion at 43 branches the year before.

Newcomer to the region Citibank has yet to make its mark, accumulating just $52.26 million in deposits at the five branches it has opened recently in Berwyn, Philadelphia, Willow Grove and Villanova.