Short Takes: New Jersey's Commerce In Deal for 8th Agency

Commerce Bancorp of Cherry Hill, N.J., is buying its eighth insurance agency in its three years in the business.

The $6 billion-asset banking company expects a September closing of the deal for Mullaney Insurance Associates Inc., a property and casualty insurance agency based in Oakhurst, N.J.

The deal would give Commerce its first insurance office in Monmouth County. The banking company sells insurance throughout the state, a spokesman said.

Terms of the deal for the 20-employee agency were not disclosed.

The banking company plans to make H. William Mullaney, who founded the agency in 1961, vice president of its Commerce National Insurance Services subsidiary.

No staffing changes are expected, the spokesman said.

Commerce would not disclose Mullaney's sales.

However, the acquisition should push its insurance arm's premium sales from more than $350 million in 1998 to about $400 million this year, the spokesman said.