Comerica, originally called Detroit Savings Fund Institute, opened its doors on August 17, 1849, to a city bustling with shipyards, river trade, sawmills, horse drawn carriages and dirt roads. It had six customers that day, with receipts totaling $41. Within two years, the patronage increased to more than 300 with the tally at $25,000.

In the early 1980s and Comerica Incorporated was established. The new name reflected the national scope of Comerica’s products and services and its desire for expansion to new markets. As its senior customers retired or wintered in Florida, Comerica packed some of its bags and headed south in 1982 to establish branch offices. With the economic growth of America, Comerica headed for the wide-open spaces of Texas in 1988 and continued west to California in the early 1990s. Racing toward the millennium, Comerica experienced extraordinary change. This began in 1992, when Comerica merged with in-market rival Manufacturers National Corporation. As Comerica carved a niche for itself in Detroit through the years, Manufacturers proved a worthy competitor. Both banks were nearly equal in assets and employees and had enjoyed great success. However, the banks’ CEOs recognized the emerging era of rapid consolidation in banking and their own vulnerability to takeovers. The merger of equals between Comerica and Manufacturers was a major achievement.

Today Comerica is among the 25 largest US based banking companies with sixty three billion in assets and are now headquarted in Texas though it's major operations remain in Detroit, MI employing just under ten thousand people nationally.