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Comerica, Inc. is a bank holding company, which was incorporated on November 13, 1972, that offers financial services in America. The Company’s main activity is lending to and accepting deposits from individuals and businesses. The Company offers a variety of loans, which include consumer loans, residential mortgage loans, international loans, lease financing, real estate construction loans, commercial loans, and commercial mortgage loans. As a financial institution, its business strategy primarily involves accepting deposits and making use of these funds to offer loans at higher rates than it pays to its accountholders while trying to minimize the proportion of loan funds lost due to nonpayment. The difference between the weighted averages of the two rates is termed the loan spread or net interest margin and was responsible for approximately 60% of Comerica’s revenues in 2009.
Comerica’s operations are divided into three business sectors: the Wealth Management, Retail Bank, and the Business Bank as well as the Finance segment. The wealth and institutional management business include personal and institutional trust services, insurance, retirement services, investment account management, private banking, and the Comerica Securities brokerage. The retail bank provides the usual range of services, such as small business banking, deposits, mortgages, and consumer lending. Large corporations and middle-market companies rely on Comerica’s business bank, which offers corporate finance, leasing, loan syndication, international trade finance, credit, cash management, and capital markets products services.
At present, there are more than two active banking and around 40 non-banking subsidiaries which Comerica owns directly or indirectly. Comerica’s approximately 9,000 colleagues focus on relationships and helping businesses and people become successful. Comerica has total deposits of nearly $60 billion and total loans of about $50 billion Comerica operates in seven of the ten largest American cities, with 480 banking centers in the major markets of Michigan, Florida, Texas, California, and Arizona. Select subsidiaries operate in some other states, as well as in Mexico and Canada. Comerica is among the 22 largest American banking companies, with nearly $70 billion in total assets to date.
Comerica’s history started in Detroit in 1849, where the Detroit Savings Fund Institute opened its doors with the aim of offering banking services to the laborers in the city. Six clients deposited a total of $41 on its first day of businesses. And by 1870, the company grew its assets to approximately $1 million, thanks in large part to a growing worker class and the emerging auto industry.
Detroit Savings Fund merged with three other regional banks in 1956 to form Detroit Bank & Trust, which regrouped under a holding company after regulatory changes in 1973. The name Comerica debuted in 1982, marking a period of expansion that led the bank to major markets in Texas, Illinois, and Florida. Further mergers (with InBancshares in California, Manufacturers National Corporation, Plaza Commerce Bancorp, and Texas’ Grand Bancshares) grew the company in reach and size. By 2004 Comerica offered banking services to its customers across America.
On the other hand, as the auto industry weakened in 2007, Comerica began transferring its headquarters to Dallas, TX. The transition only finished by early 2010.
In September 2008, as the federal government opens out plans to strengthen the financial sector, Comerica stated that they had been granted approval from the U.S. Treasury Department to take part in Treasury’s capital purchase program, amounting to $2.25 billion. Before 2008 ended, Comerica stated that they would continue participating in the temporary liquidity assurance program, which offers its clients with a full assurance, without any dollar restriction, on funds held in all of Comerica’s noninterest-bearing accounts until the end of 2009. The program, which was intended to restore liquidity to America’s banking system, also provides FDIC security on newly issued senior unsecured debt until the debt matures, or June 30, 2012, whichever comes first.