FineMark merger with Commerce Bank boosts growth in SWFL

As 2026 begins, it does so with a new alliance between a local banking institution and a national one.

FineMark Bank & Trust, founded in 2007 in south Fort Myers in a former Blockbuster Video space, finalized its merger with Commerce Bank & Trust, a move that vaulted the 161-year-old Commerce institution from a top-23 to a top-15 bank-managed trust company.

The merger expands both banks’ reach. It strengthens Commerce Bank’s foothold in Southwest Florida, boosting its assets from about $32 billion to $36 billion while increasing assets under administration to roughly $90 billion.

FineMark entered the merger with about $4 billion in assets, deposits of roughly $3.1 billion and loans of about $2.6 billion, according to the company’s news release last summer.

The deal allows FineMark to continue growing its brand while benefiting from the scale and resources of its new parent company. FineMark operates 13 branches serving about 2,000 customers across Southwest Florida, Arizona and South Carolina.

Joe Catti, founder of FineMark, will continue to lead the brand as chair of Commerce Trust. About a year ago, he began exploring options for FineMark’s next stage of growth and explained the constraints facing independent banks.

“Since we opened in ’07, the company has grown substantially every single year,” Catti said. “With banks, growth can be limiting by the amount of capital that you have. To grow really fast, you have to have enough earnings to build the capital base. We never had enough earnings, because we were growing so fast. Which is a good thing.

“You go two steps forward, and when you open a new location, then you might go one step backward.”

That pattern played out as FineMark expanded beyond Fort Myers into Arizona and South Carolina.

The bank also quickly outgrew its original 2,000-square-foot space. After outgrowing a second office, FineMark purchased the deteriorating Atrium shopping center, demolished it in 2019 and built its current 60,000-square-foot headquarters at 8695 College Parkway.

“We’ve raised capital five times since we opened the company,” said Catti, who previously worked for Northern Trust. “Several years ago, we did what we thought would be our last capital raise. We figured that would take us however far we wanted to go. Capital and growth.”

As FineMark grew, so did the regulatory burden, which drove up costs and slowed expansion, Catti said. Increased compliance requirements have made banking more expensive, particularly because those positions are essential but do not produce revenue.

He said those pressures were compounded by external shocks, including three hurricanes, the COVID-19 pandemic and a liquidity crisis in financial markets in 2023 and 2024.

“When the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by more than 5% in about a year, rates went from near zero to 5%,” he said. “That triggered a liquidity crisis, and several banks went out of business.”

FineMark emerged from that period intact, Catti said, but the experience prompted a strategic reassessment.

“We didn’t lose clients,” he said. “After everything we went through, we sat down in 2024 to evaluate our path forward. Did we want to raise more capital? Go public? Partner with private equity? Or find an institution we could genuinely align with?”

That process ultimately pointed the bank toward Commerce Bank.

Catti and Commerce CEO John Handy had known each other for several years and began merger discussions in January 2025, agreeing to a deal in June. Regulatory approvals took just 33 days, Commerce Chief Financial Officer Charles Kim said.

“The clock started,” Kim said. “We were very thorough. Both banks are very conscious about their relationships with the regulators. Maybe it would have taken three months five years ago. There’s a fair amount of planning to make this go on without a hitch for the customer.”

The companies chose to finalize the merger at the start of the new year. All FineMark operations and employees will remain in place, Catti said. The most visible change will be the removal of “National” from the FineMark name to comply with federal regulations.

“There’s an advantage to breaking it in the calendar year,” Kim said.

Kim called the merger a major step forward for Commerce.

“This really vaults our position several levels up,” he said. “We have a lot of customers there already. We’re adding some really great markets. High wealth markets where we already have a lot of customers. We’ve got a lot of scale. We have more assets under management. I would say it’s very much a big deal for us. An important deal for us.”

Handy said he quickly recognized the value of acquiring FineMark — and of keeping Catti in leadership.

“This takes us from the 20th largest to the 15th largest in wealth management,” Handy said. “The reason why Joe and I have talked for a long time, it’s Joe’s leadership. That’s the first reason why we want to do it.

“The second reason is the quality of the team he’s put together is exceptional.

“The third thing is, we think about the business the same way. How we want to run things is very similar.”

Catti said Commerce stood out among potential partners because of its alignment in culture and philosophy.

“We were very aligned,” he said. “That’s the most important piece. Culture and the people. We agreed to merge. They’re much bigger than us, but that scale will help us continue to grow.”