TD Bank shuts off water to Commerce fountains

TD Bank confirms it's turning off the fountains designed for the former Commerce Bank headquarters and regional offices under ex-Commerce style arbiter Shirley Hill, wife of ex-Commerce chief executive Vernon Hill.

Canada-based TD, which bought Commerce last year, says it's also shutting her two-story waterfall at the Marlton training campus formerly known as Commerce University.

"The fountains will become planters," Rebecca Acevedo, a TD spokeswoman, told me when I asked about the bank's plumbing plans. "We will continue to maintain a memorable space for our customers and employees."

Why the switch? Planters "reduce water usage and are more environmentally friendly," says Acevedo. Another banking source cited insurance liability concerns. TD sells a lot of insurance.

Commerce said it paid Shirley Hill's firm over $50 million for designing and furnishing Commerce facilities and enforcing proper use of the Commerce brand during the 10 years before its sale to TD last fall.

Vernon Hill credited his wife with building the Commerce brand as it opened a branch a week. But he was forced out of the bank in mid-2007 after Treasury Department bank examiners stopped approving new Commerce branches pending a review of the bank's use of Hill family companies.

No comment from the Hills on the water-shutoff notice.