Baltimore Bank

Relatives of Elizabeth C. "Nancy" Smith are suing a Baltimore bank, alleging that someone forged almost $20,000 worth of checks drawn on her account.Baltimore attorney Frederick Steinmann filed the suit this week in Howard County Circuit Court on behalf of Smith's two heirs -- Jane P. Nes and Ruth B. McClees, both of Baltimore -- against First National Bank of Maryland.Smith died last February without a will, leaving the fate of her 300 acres in the middle of Columbia up in the air. The land is worth an estimated $8 million.

The Police Department, Baltimore Ravens and Maryland Office Interiors announced yesterday a partnership to promote academic achievement and support educational programs at Police Athletic League centers.Among the Ravens pledging donations are: wide receivers Michael Jackson and Patrick Johnson, $100 for every touchdown catch; defensive end Michael McCrary, $500 for each sack; linebacker Ray Lewis, $100 for every 10 tackles; and running back Errict Rhett, $100 for every touchdown. Maryland Office Interiors will match each pledge.

The body of a Northeast Baltimore woman was found with multiple stab wounds in the back seat of her grandmother's car yesterday, about three blocks from Memorial Stadium, police said.Homicide Detective Vernon Parker said a man walking in the 700 block of Fillmore St. saw the body in a 1989 Mercury Cougar and called police. Parker said Jerrisha Burton, 18, of the 3800 block of The Alameda died of multiple stab wounds to the upper torso.Parker said Burton, who was unemployed and lived with her grandmother and mother, left home about 6 p.m. Tuesday but did not say where she was going.

An Illinois computer analyst was indicted yesterday on charges he planned to steal $16.8 million from his employer, move it through a Baltimore bank and vanish with the money, using a new identity, federal prosecutors said.Authorities halted the alleged scheme in its final stages as the analyst and an accomplice were about to wire millions to a bank account in the tiny eastern European nation of Estonia, according to the indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.Scott Michael Posnanski, 30, of Lake-in-the-Hills, Ill., and Jonathan Andrew May, 33, of Portland, Ore., had attempted to wire the money from a NationsBank branch in Baltimore, prosecutors said.

Robbers armed with nothing more than threatening notes held up four Baltimore banks yesterday, moving the city to the record-breaking levels of 1993 that sent worried bank executives scrambling for solutions.Two banks were robbed in the suburbs -- one in Howard County by a woman who claimed to have a bomb, and one in a Baltimore County mall by a man who hinted he was armed.The city holdups -- three at NationsBank branches -- pushed the number of Baltimore bank robberies to 50 this year. The worst year was 1993, when 116 holdups were reported.

A teen-ager was arrested, and several other young males were being sought yesterday in connection with the armed holdup of a NationsBank in which two employees were handcuffed together, city police said.A teller was opening a side door to the bank in the 4900 block of Patterson Ave. -- south of Reisterstown Road Plaza in Northwest Baltimore -- about 8:40 a.m. when she was confronted by a robber armed with a .38-caliber handgun, police said.The robber ordered the teller to lie on the floor, then told another employee to open the safe, police said.

Stockholders of the Farm Credit Bank of Baltimore yesterday approved a consolidation with a sister institution in Columbia, S.C., that will result in the closing of its Baltimore County headquarters and the loss of 100 area jobs.The merger of the state's largest agriculture lender with the Farm Credit Bank of Columbia will form a $10 billion institution serving farmers in 15 states and Puerto Rico. It will be based in Columbia.Operations of the local bank will cease on April 1, the effective date of the merger, assuming approval by regulators, said Reider J. White, a bank spokesman.

Directors of the Farm Credit Bank of Baltimore will meet today to consider a merger with a sister institution in Columbia, S.C., that could lead to the creation of a new cooperative banking system extending from Pennsylvania to Florida.The possibility of a consolidation with the Farm Credit Bank of Columbia "is on the agenda for discussion at tomorrow's meeting," Jack Curry, a spokesman for the Sparks-based bank said yesterday.The bank, which is Maryland's largest agricultural lender, did not offer any hint as to how its seven-member board would vote on the issue.

The Farm Credit Bank of Baltimore is holding merger talks with a sister institution in Columbia, S.C., that could lead to the creation of a new cooperative banking system extending from Pennsylvania to Florida.Gene L. Swackhamer, president of the Sparks-based bank, said yesterday that the state's largest agriculture lender has been holding merger discussions with the Farm Credit Bank of Columbia since March. He said it was too soon to determine if there would be a consolidation.Mr. Swackhamer said that a merger is just one form of restructuring being considered as the bank seeks to cut its operating costs and to boost its lending power.

The Farm Credit Bank of Baltimore, a cooperative bank serving the needs of mid-Atlantic farmers since the early days of World War I, announced yesterday that it has reached an agreement to merge with its sister institution in Columbia, S.C., creating a banking system extending from Pennsylvania to Florida.Gene L. Swackhamer, president of the Sparks-based bank, said the merger will lower operating costs of the consolidated operations and make the new bank more competitive.He said the consolidation is expected to save between $6 million and $7.5 million in annual operating costs.

Edward "Ned" Kelly III, the former Mercantile Bankshares Corp. executive who shepherded the sale of the Baltimore bank to PNC Financial Services Group two years ago, was named chief financial officer of Citigroup yesterday, the latest move in a major management reshuffling at the struggling bank. Kelly, who has been serving as New York-based Citi's head of global banking, will replace Gary Crittenden, who is moving to a newly created role of chairman of Citi Holdings. The changes come after the company announced earlier this year that it was splitting into two divisions, with Citi Holdings in charge of noncore businesses such as government-backed risky assets and the Baltimore-based consumer lending arm CitiFinancial.

Advertising Vertis Communications appointed Jon Singer as senior vice president of sales and marketing for the direct-marketing division of the Baltimore-based national advertising and direct-marketing firm. Appointments The Baltimore County Public Library named Thomas A. Lehner facilities services coordinator. He has responsibility for the daily planning, supervision and administration of facility development, alteration and maintenance operations. The state Department of Disabilities said Mike A. Bullis was appointed executive director of the Maryland Technology Assistance Program.

Provident Bankshares Corp., Maryland's largest independent bank, reported yesterday that profit dropped 23 percent in the second quarter, mostly because it charged off a $3.5 million commercial loan to a government contractor that failed to repay. Chief Executive Officer Gary N. Geisel emphasized that the Baltimore bank, which outsources its residential-mortgage business, has not been hurt by the wave of defaults on subprime mortgages that is rattling the banking sector nationwide. While Provident makes some home-equity and consumer loans that could be considered subprime, meaning the borrowers have poor credit histories, those are a "modest" part of the overall portfolio, he said.

Baltimore County Savings Bank said yesterday that its insurer has agreed to pay $3.35 million as compensation for the bank's losses in an alleged check-kiting scheme last year. The Baltimore bank, which is operating under the supervision of federal regulators while it rebuilds its finances, said it is still hoping to recover more of the $10.7 million it lost in the alleged scheme. But any further recovery could take an "extended period of time" to resolve, the bank said in a statement.

BANKING & FINANCE Bay National Bank announced the selection of Gilbert F. Kennedy III as vice president of commercial lending. He has responsibility for small business, real estate and assets-based lending and for leasing development. Columbia National Real Estate Financial LLC, appointed Melissa Peters vice president of loan production in its Baltimore office. She is responsible for non-recourse, permanent mortgages for commercial and multifamily projects. Mercantile-Safe Deposit & Trust Co. announced the appointments of Sandra L. Zinck, financial services department, and David D. Addison as senior vice presidents.

Eugene J. Sheehy, who was sent to Baltimore three years ago by Allied Irish Banks PLC to help its Allfirst Financial Inc. subsidiary recover from a huge currency trading scandal, is being called home to Dublin to lead the parent bank. Next month, Sheehy, 50, will take over Ireland's largest company from Chief Executive Officer Michael D. Buckley, who is retiring. Sheehy is chairman and chief executive officer of the Mid-Atlantic division of M&T Bank Corp. of Buffalo, N.Y., which bought a majority stake in Allfirst from Allied Irish for $3.1 billion in September 2002, six months after Sheehy arrived.

Three years after one of the largest bank frauds in history foreshadowed the end of Allfirst Financial Inc., the "rogue" trader at the center of that scandal is the only person from the former Baltimore bank who has faced a day in court. That might change in the coming months. This week, two lawsuits from shareholders who contend that higher-ups at the bank should have known about and policed the $690 million trading scandal will be merged into a 70-page complaint in federal court in New York.

Allied Irish Banks PLC has fired a well-aimed shot that could result in the recovery of millions of dollars from two of the country's largest banking companies, which allegedly aided a rogue trader in defrauding the Dublin bank of $691.2 million, industry experts said. Allied, the former parent company of Baltimore-based Allfirst Financial Inc., sued Citibank and Bank of America last week, seeking to recover about $500 million in compensatory damages - the share of the losses it attributed to the banks' alleged wrongdoing.

Elizabeth K. Wilson, a retired bank officer, died Saturday of a cerebral hemorrhage at Bonnie Blink, the Maryland Masonic Home in Hunt Valley. The former Tuscany-Canterbury resident was 102. Born Mary Elizabeth Kirwan and raised in East Baltimore, she was a 1918 graduate of Eastern High School. Family members said she recalled seeing her first horseless carriage on East Baltimore Street. Her father raised her on his shoulders to observe the 1904 Baltimore fire. About 1920, she became a clerk at Eutaw Savings Bank.

M&T Bank Corp., which agreed this week to buy scandal-tarred Allfirst Financial Inc., will face many challenges in stitching together the two companies, but the biggest could be reviving employee morale at the Baltimore bank, industry experts said yesterday. Over the past seven months, Allfirst employees have watched as the bank was embarrassed in one of the industry's biggest scandals. They have also seen a number of senior executives leave and have lived with rumors that Allfirst was for sale.