Russ Rockenbach, North Texas Market President, Commerce Bank

Commerce Bank believes evolving technologies and automation are an integral part of the future of banking. “We’re excited about the opportunity to assist our clients in embracing the use of automation to create efficiencies, reduce error and mitigate fraud,” Russ Rockenbach, North Texas market president, told Invest: DFW.

What have been some significant milestones and achievements for Commerce Bank in the North Texas market?

I would point to the growth in the market as well as the growth in our team, as we’re focused on attracting and retaining the top talent in the marketplace. We’ve had the opportunity this year to add team members in commercial banking, private banking and payments services. We are excited about what that means for our team and our clients, as we’ll be able to continue to support the growth of our existing clients and continue to add new clients, which is an important part of our growth story here. The external environment is always changing, but we’re well-positioned to help clients navigate those changes.

What specific strategy has driven the bank’s success?

We are focused on being a trusted advisor to our clients and on spending a lot of time listening to what is on their agendas, positioning ourselves to come alongside them and enable their growth or to achieve whatever their objectives are. We pair that with world-class technology and solutions, along with local, deep market knowledge and experience which is so important.

What is your overview of the financial services and banking industries, and what are the biggest opportunities?

I’m optimistic about the growth potential of North Texas and what that means for our team. We’re excited about the opportunity to assist our clients in embracing the use of automation to create efficiencies, reduce error and reduce fraud. And we’re focused on providing thoughtful advice and access to the technology that makes sense for them.

If you look at the strong growth across the marketplace, it’s being driven by access to talent, and all the work that the companies located here are doing to continue to foster that growth. It’s an attractive and competitive marketplace. 

One of the factors I point to is the increase in interest rates. As a result, companies are more focused on their bottom line and the steps they can take to improve them, which is leading to a lot of thoughtful conversations around opportunities to optimize working capital. As we are advising our customers, we’re having conversations around the ability to use automation to create efficiencies and to help them optimize that working capital, which will help them improve their bottom lines.

How are you leveraging technology to create a better experience for your customers?

There are a lot of different opportunities for us to engage with our clients to determine what their pain points are. As they focus on working capital, you think about higher interest rates that are resulting in increased expenses that weren’t there a few years ago. As they consider those higher costs, it’s resulting in these deeper conversations about what can be done to accelerate the timing around their receivables processes, and what solutions might be available to them to increase automation and drive efficiencies. There’s a focus on opportunities to enable growth without adding head count. Those are the conversations that we’re having right now.

Where are you seeing more demand or where you are targeting your efforts?

Working with middle-market business owners is a primary focus, however we also have a commercial real estate practice and a strong payments team. In addition, we support industry verticals where there are numerous opportunities for us to leverage our experienced team members in areas such as healthcare, and construction. We offer distinct solutions that are available to clients in those industries that differentiate us from our competitors and are driving outsized growth.

What is the bank’s strategy to attract and retain talent?

Attracting and retaining talent is about being close to your talent and understanding what’s important to them. We have a strong culture that resonates with team members and, honestly, our clients as well. That takes a lot of different forms, including providing opportunities for team members to volunteer and give back to their communities. It’s really important that we make sure that we’re investing back into the communities where we live and work.

What are your key focus areas for sustainable growth over the coming years? 

I would point to the conversations we’re having with our customers around optimizing working capital. As we think about the increased use of automation, that does a lot of things for our clients. It helps them to decrease fraud. It helps them to increase efficiencies, decrease errors, and it helps them speed up their working capital position, which will result in savings that go to the bottom line and allow them to continue to invest in their businesses, or accomplish whatever their objectives are. The most important thing is taking the time to get to know our customers, and to truly understand what their goals are and how we can assist them in meeting those objectives. We don’t make assumptions about what they would like to accomplish; we develop active relationships with our clients. It is also critical that we continue to attract and retain the best talent in the market. Our ongoing investment and commitment to our team members and our culture are key to our long-term growth.