...Our ratings on Commerce Bancshares Inc. reflect our expectation that it will maintain its consistent performance, solid revenue diversification, and conservative financial policies. We expect Commerce to grow its primary businesses (commercial, consumer, and wealth management) organically at a modest pace while continuing to prudently expand into other geographies outside of its core Midwestern footprint. Commerce's diversified revenue base and high proportion of noninterest income have contributed to the company's stable earnings performance, in our view. We expect Commerce's capital ratios and funding metrics to remain better than many regional bank peers. Capital ratios continue to exceed many peers as loan growth remains generally moderate and shareholder returns remain lower than net income. Furthermore, Commerce has among the lowest cost of funds for U.S. rated banks due to its ample low-cost deposits and significant proportion of non-interest-bearing deposits (38% of total deposits)....
