First Maryland

First Maryland .. .. .. .. .. Ticker .. .. .. .. .. Yesterday'sBancorp.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Symbol* .. .. .. .. Cls. .. .. .. Chg... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. -- .. .. .. .. ..-- .. .. .. .. --Period endedJune 30 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 2nd qtr. .. .. .. .. Year ago .. .. Chg.Net Income .. .. .. .. .. .. .. $31,020 .. .. .. .. $24,341.. .. ..+27.4%Primary EPS* .. .. .. .. .. .. .. NA .. .. .. .. .. .. NAAnnualized returnon assets .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1.37% .. .. .. .. .. 1.11%Add.

As the sounds of Latin music filled the Timonium Fairgrounds, Efren Perez and his workers helped fill the bellies of hungry festival-goers with tenderly grilled flank steak cooked at his vendor booth. The 37-year-old owns a Colombian restaurant, Rancho Mateo, in Paterson, N.J., and, on weekends, looks to make extra money by serving food at Latin festivals. This year, he added Baltimore County to his itinerary, where he served food as part of the first Maryland Latin Festival. "It's a big community," Perez said as he looked around at the vendors representing other Latin American countries.

The senior management ranks at First Maryland Bancorp continued to thin as four more senior vice presidents left this month, further dampening the morale of veterans at the parent of Maryland's second-largest bank.The news of the four departures follows the loss of four other senior vice presidents in September, only one of whom left because of a new job. The latest cuts include the company's general counsel and corporate secretary, Gary W. Sutton. Communications chief Ronald C. McGuirk replaces Mr. Sutton as secretary, but spokeswoman Carol Dunsworth said the general counsel's job has not yet been filled.

A fist-sized contraption of plastic and metal kept 63-year-old Grant Feusner alive for five weeks earlier this year, pumping blood from his chest to his brain, kidneys and muscles. Doctors had removed most of Feusner's heart, ballooned with disease and too weak to nourish his organs with oxygen and nutrients. It wasn't the first time Feusner's doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center had implanted such a device. Artificial hearts are designed to be used as a bridge from heart failure to heart transplant.

Frank P. Bramble Sr., the newly hired chief executive officer of First Maryland Bancorp, is prepared to launch a series of changes aimed at cutting costs, improving profitability and preparing the quiet banking company for an aggressive expansion campaign, according to executives inside and close to First Maryland.Mr. Bramble, who helped pull MNC Financial Inc. from the brink of a federal takeover before its acquisition by NationsBank, is likely to replace some of the executive staff at First Maryland with his former colleagues at MNC.The company, owned by the Allied Irish Group PLC in Dublin, Ireland, is the parent of the First National Bank of Maryland, the state's second largest banking company.

The anticipated executive-level changes at First Maryland Bancorp, where new chief executive officer Frank P. Bramble Sr. is beginning to remake the $10 billion institution, are under way.The first of those arrived last week with the retirement of Joseph E. Peters and William T. Murray III, two of five executive vice presidents at First Maryland, which owns the state's second largest bank, First National Bank of Maryland.Mr. Peters, 56, has overseen the bank's branch system, including retail and commercial lending, real estate, and the credit card and mortgage subsidiaries.

After five years of strong earnings growth, First Maryland Bancorp profits plunged 40 percent, to $44 million, in 1990, but its overseas parent, Allied Irish, is quite likely viewing the results with more relief than consternation.For First Maryland has remained solidly profitable, extremely well capitalized and in a position to prudently expand -- to use a bankerly phrase -- at a time when other affiliates of European banks have been battered and are more likely to shrink than enlarge. Deposits are now flooding in, providing a relatively cheap and stable source of funds, at the same time that capital constraints on other banks have provided what First Maryland Chief Executive Officer Charles Cole sees as openings for business.

The state's second-largest banking company, First Maryland Bancorp, and one of Maryland's largest thrifts, Loyola Capital Corp., reported record profits for 1991 yesterday.Loyola had more good news for shareholders -- dividends. For the first time since becoming a publicly traded company more than five years ago, the thrift announced a 10-cent-a-share quarterly dividend.This is hopefully the beginning of a routine," said James V. McAveney, executive vice president of Loyola.First Maryland, the parent of First National Bank of Maryland, said it earned $23.9 million in the fourth quarter, compared with $1.5 million in the final quarter of 1990.

First Maryland Bancorp, coming off a year with record earnings, reported a strong first quarter yesterday as profits nearly doubled compared with the year-ago period.The company, parent of the First National Bank of Maryland, earned $20 million in the three months that ended March 31, compared with earnings of $10.4 million a year ago. Earnings in the fourth quarter of last year were $23.4 million.First Maryland, a subsidiary of AIB Group of Dublin, Ireland, doesn't report per-share income.

First Maryland Bancorp, parent of the First National Bank of Maryland, reported slightly higher fourth-quarter profits yesterday and much stronger earnings for all of 1992.The company, which also owns the York Bank & Trust Co., earned $24.1 million in the three months that ended Dec. 31. The results were basically flat compared with the third quarter and only 0.8 percent more than the $23.9 million profit in '91.The performance for the year was more impressive. The 1992 earnings of $92.5 million, a company record, were 23 percent higher than in 1991, when First Maryland earned $75.1 million.

Graduating Randallstown High School senior Brian McNair was wary of the Facebook IPO hype. Though he saw his fellow students buying into it, he had a gut feeling the risk was too high. McNair, 17, steered clear of the social media giant's stock and avoided one of the biggest letdowns in stock market history. Some of his classmates weren't so lucky. Fortunately for them, their tradings were virtual, part of a classroom simulation intended to teach them about the stock market. Randallstown officially unveiled Friday its Academy of Finance Stock Exchange Classroom, a computer lab with 32 computers, two flat-screen televisions, a data board and a live NASDAQ stock ticker.

With 369,000 square feet under roof, it would seem McCormick & Co.'s sprawling distribution center in Belcamp would have an eye-popping power bill, with some 3,300 light fixtures and a refrigerated storage area big enough to drive forklifts in and out. But in the past year, the 81/3-acre Harford County warehouse has generated more power than it has consumed, making it the first "net-zero-energy" building in Maryland and one of a small but growing...

Though the buzz about Wednesday night's Maryland-Duke game at Comcast Center is noticeably lacking compared to other years, Mark Turgeonpointed to the row of cameras he faced Tuesday as a symbol that the interest in still there. Turgeon said that he was aware of the rivalry while coaching in other parts of the country, but never really watched the games or followed the outcome more than to hear a score occasionally. "A rivalry is a rivalry and it's more important to the people involved," Turgeon said.

For nearly three quarters Saturday at BB&T Field, a young and undermanned Maryland defense kept the Terrapins from continuing their two-month freefall. And, for a few seconds at the end of the first half against Wake Forest, the offense seemed to come to life, too. It didn't last. The defense got tired and the offense made a crucial mistake — an illegal shift penalty against junior wide receiver Kevin Dorsey that negated what would have been a 17-yard touchdown run by senior tailback Davin Meggett that could have put the Terps into the lead.

A Maryland National Guard unit has returned from Iraq ahead of schedule, the first Marylanders to come home since President Barack Obama announced the withdrawal of all U.S. forces by the end of the year. The 17 members of the Baltimore-based 29th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, who were not due back until early next year, are now at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, Maryland guard spokesman Lt. Col. Charles S. Kohler said Wednesday. They are scheduled to return to the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore in the next few days.

Picking up the newspaper recently, I've noticed that the same topics seem to be dominating most of the local headlines: in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, higher tolls, gay marriage, state workers forced to pay union dues, crime at theInner Harbor. But the topic that affects all Marylanders the most - the state's shaky economy and resulting business and job losses - doesn't seem to be garnering the attention it deserves. About a month ago, The Sun's Jamie Smith Hopkins reported that Maryland ranked last in the nation in job creation - 50th out of 50 states, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

First Maryland Bancorp, in a bid to expand its presence in the Washington area, yesterday said it has agreed to acquire a Washington investment advisory firm for $15 million.With Zirkin-Cutler Investments, First Maryland would get a respected money manager with $1.2 billion in assets whose clients include wealthy individuals, retirement funds and nonprofit organizations.Under the letter of intent announced yesterday, the companies said Zirkin-Cutler would operate as an independent subsidiary and keep its name.

Barbara Edsall gently eased her Honda Civic down the hill to the intersection of Main Street and Baltimore Street. The stoplight was red. "Randy always talks about being a country bumpkin from a town that has one signal light," Barbara Edsall said as she sat waiting for the light to change. . "This is the one signal light. " The intersection is at the center of what was once a rural, agricultural and factory town of about 1,800 but seems now, more than three decades after Randy Edsall left to become its first Division I scholarship athlete in memory, part of the suburban sprawl between Baltimore and Harrisburg.

Madeline Leonia "Mae" Pullen, a longtime Harlem Park-Lafayette Square activist who fought for senior housing options and public safety, health and education issues for residents, died Oct. 7 in her sleep at Caton Manor Nursing Home. She was 90. The daughter of a carpenter and a homemaker, Madeline Leonia Brown was born in Sparrows Point and raised on Carey Street. She graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in 1938, and the next year married her high school sweetheart, Francis Pullen Sr., who later became a U.S. Post Office supervisor.