Principles of Consolidation and Presentation

The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Commerce Bancshares, Inc. and all majority-owned subsidiaries (the Company). Most of the Company's operations are conducted by its subsidiary bank, Commerce Bank (the Bank). The consolidated financial statements in this report have not been audited by an independent registered public accounting firm, but in the opinion of management, all adjustments necessary to present fairly the financial position and the results of operations for the interim periods have been made. All such adjustments are of a normal recurring nature. All significant intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated. Certain reclassifications were made to 2017 data to conform to current year presentation. In preparing the consolidated financial statements, management is required to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities as of the date of the balance sheet and revenues and expenses for the period. Actual results could differ significantly from those estimates. Management has evaluated subsequent events for potential recognition or disclosure. The results of operations for the three and nine month periods ended September 30, 2018 are not necessarily indicative of results to be attained for the full year or any other interim period.

The consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (GAAP) for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Accordingly, the financial statements do not include all of the information and footnotes required by GAAP for complete financial statements and should be read in conjunction with the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, containing the latest audited consolidated financial statements and notes thereto.

These financial statements reflect the adoption of several FASB Accounting Standards Updates (ASUs) on January 1, 2018. In some cases, the adoption of these ASUs resulted in changes to former accounting policies as described in Note 1 to the financial statements in the 2017 Annual Report on Form 10-K. The ASUs which affected the Company's 2018 financial statements include:


•	ASU 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, which is discussed further in Note 13.


•	ASU 2016-01, Recognition and Measurement of Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities, which is discussed further in Note 3 - Investment Securities, Note 8 - Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income, and Note 15 - Fair Value of Financial Instruments.


•	ASU 2016-18, Restricted Cash, which requires that the beginning and end of period amounts shown on the statement of cash flows include not only cash and cash equivalents, but also restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents, as considered such by the reporting entity.


•	ASU 2017-07, Improving the Presentation of Net Periodic Pension Cost and Net Periodic Postretirement Benefit Cost, which is discussed further in Note 6 - Pension.


•	ASU 2018-02, Reclassification for Certain Tax Effects from Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income, which is discussed further in Note 8 - Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income.