SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Comerica Bank today announced it is accelerating its growth in major metropolitan areas of Arizona and California, with six new banking centers expected to open by the end of the year.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20010807/CMALOGO )

The San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties and greater Phoenix continue to be the hot spots for growth for Comerica Bank, one of the 20 largest banks in the U.S., as it continues an expansion that began three years ago.

The latest round of new banking center openings began less than two months ago. Comerica opened five new offices between mid-October and mid-December: Point Loma in San Diego in October, followed last month by a Foothill Ranch location in Orange County, then two Los Angeles County banking centers - in Cerritos and in Torrance - this month.

Three more California banking centers are expected to open within the next week: in San Carlos (Dec. 20) and Alameda (Dec. 26) in the Bay Area, and in Escondido (Dec. 21) in San Diego County.

December also is expected to be a busy month for Comerica Bank in Arizona. A new Phoenix banking center opened Dec. 10, and two banking centers in Mesa and one in Scottsdale are expected to open later this month.

"We expect to have opened a total of 16 new banking centers in Arizona and California in all of 2007 - a record pace of growth for Comerica in the West - and we plan on increasing that pace next year," said Mike Fulton, president and CEO of Comerica Bank's Western Market.

Comerica now has 79 locations in California and six in Arizona; in mid- 2003, the bank had 42 banking centers in California and one in Arizona. By Jan. 1, the bank expects to have a total of 91 banking centers in its Western Market - 82 in California and nine in Arizona.

"These new offices - some of them in new markets - are helping us grow in the West," said Fulton. "These new locations help us implement our long-term strategy that focuses on serving the growing numbers of business banking, small business, wealth management, and retail customers in Arizona and California. We are building on our strengths in relationship banking, and adding new access points for our customers for new products and services."

Betty Rengifo Tucker, executive vice president and Retail Bank manager for Comerica's Western Market, said one of the new banking centers, in Cerritos, is targeting the high percentages of Asian-American customers and Asian- American-owned businesses in the community. To better serve its diverse customer base in Cerritos, the bank hired a multilingual staff, fluent in Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Korean, Vietnamese and Tagalog, as well as Spanish. She also said the bank used a feng shui consultant to guide the interior design of the new banking center in Cerritos.

"We listen to our customers, and to do this effectively we need to speak their languages," Tucker said. "Hiring multilingual staff specific to the communities we serve is a high priority for Comerica Bank."

  The new Comerica banking centers expected to open this month:

  Arizona

Scottsdale, 4545 N. Scottsdale Road (near Camelback Road); Dennis Fernandez, manager

  Mesa, 5225 S. Power Road (near Ray Road); Kris Button, manager
  Mesa, 925 N. Dobson Road (near Bass Pro Drive); Rose Ivazej, manager

  San Francisco Bay Area

San Carlos, 644 Laurel Street (near San Carlos Boulevard); Alina Dinerman, manager

Alameda, 2416 Central Avenue (near Park Avenue); Paulette Hargrove, manager

San Diego County

Escondido, 260 W. Grand Avenue (near Escondido Boulevard); Ly Bernal, manager

  Five Comerica banking centers opened this fall:
  Arizona
  Phoenix, 2804 N. 44 Street; Courtney Benvenuto, manager; opened Dec. 10.

  Los Angeles
  Cerritos, 11355 South Street; Tissar Chang, manager; opened Dec. 3.

Torrance, 2795 Pacific Coast Highway, Torrance Towne Center; Yaldo Noorazi, manager; opened Dec. 7.

Orange County

Foothill Ranch, 27482 Portola Parkway, Foothill Ranch; Robert Brown, manager; opened Nov. 17.

San Diego

Point Loma, 3361 Rosecrans Street, Suite 9A, San Diego; Michael Landau, manager; opened Oct. 22.

About Comerica Bank

Comerica Bank is a subsidiary of Comerica Incorporated (NYSE: CMA), a Fortune 500 financial services company headquartered in Dallas strategically aligned into three major business segments: the Business Bank, the Retail Bank, and Wealth & Institutional Management. Comerica focuses on relationships and helping businesses and people be successful. Comerica bank locations can be found in Michigan, California, Texas, Florida and Arizona, with select businesses operating in several other states, Canada and Mexico. Comerica reported total assets of $60.0 billion at Sept. 30, 2007. To receive e-mail alerts of breaking Comerica news, go to http://www.comerica.com/newsalerts. (Or, for more information, go to http://www.comerica.com/.)

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SOURCE: Comerica Bank

CONTACT: Barry Holtzclaw, Comerica Bank, +1-408-556-5111,
bholtzclaw@comerica.com

Web site: http://www.comerica.com/