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 even though we don’t need the money, we’re sort of saying, should we take it or not?

Kemper said that Commerce hadn’t been in the market for new capital, but that the government’s terms appear to be relatively attractive. If the bank does take some of the federal money, he said, it will probably use it to pursue expansion opportunities.

Kemper said he thinks the equity investments are the right way to go about resolving the financial crisis, and are an improvement over the Treasury’s original idea of merely buying up troubled assets. He told the Washington U audience:

It almost seemed like the policymakers were making it up day by day until last week. … After several false starts, we are looking at massive injections of capital and liquidity into the financial system.

As I mentioned in today’s column, Enterprise Financial is also a candidate to apply for the federal equity infusion.