St. Louis banker David Kemper doesn’t like some of the rhetoric he’s hearing about bank bailouts. In particular, he said this morning in a speech at Washington University’s Olin School of Business, he doeesn’t like the fact that banks have…

David Kemper earned $2.47 million as chief executive of Commerce Bancshares last year, including a 3.7 percent salary increase and a bonus that was 50 percent of his target award. Commerce’s proxy statement discloses, however, that executive salaries are frozen this year.

Kemper’s pay package last year…

A year-end rally meant that six St. Louis companies saw their stock prices rise in 2008, up from the four I highlighted in a previous post. Commerce Bancshares and Esco Technologies eked out gains to join the four solid performers…

David Kemper, chief executive of Commerce Bancshares, says he’s thinking seriously about applying for some of the $250 billion that the U.S. Treasury plans to invest in the banking system. He told a forum at Washington University:

They are clever enough that…

Bigger isn’t necessarily better in the banking business, as some recent failures prove, but the biggest banks in St. Louis have gained market share lately at the expense of regional players. U.S. Bank, No. 1 in the market, increased its lead over…

The list of financial stocks that come under the SEC’s short-selling ban keeps growing, and some of the additions are real head-scratchers. Ford, General Electric and General Motors are puzzling enough, but they seem to be on the list because each…