Maryland National Bank

The letters atop the Maryland National Bank Building -- a colorful signature on Baltimore's skyline for more than 20 years -- will soon be history.NationsBank Corp., which acquired Maryland National last year, plans to remove the giant "mn" letters and to restore the crown of the 34-story building, Baltimore's only Art Deco skyscraper.The copper shingles on the sloping roof will be cleaned and repaired. A new coat of 23-karat gold leaf will be applied to the roof's cap and its six ornamental ribs.

A man with a small handgun robbed a Maryland National Bank branch at Towson Town Center today and then sent a shower of money flying in the parking lot as he threw the loot into the air while making his getaway.Baltimore County police said the robbery occurred about 11:48 a.m. when a man entered the bank, in the 8800 block of Dulaney Valley Road, and demanded cash.The man was given a bag of money and then tossed the open bag into the mall parking lot as he fled.Shocked witnesses said the money -- marked with red dye from exploding packs inside the bag -- flew in all directions.

Anthony Terracciano has this sly grin on his face. He's been asked a pretty simple question -- why did he, the chief executive of First Fidelity Bancorp. of Newark, N.J., agree Monday to buy Baltimore Bancorp for $346 million? And he's getting ready to give a really simple answer."It was for sale," he said.From someone else's mouth, those words would be dissembling, but the 55-year old banker from Bayonne, N.J., is straighter than that. Anyone who paid attention to him has known for a while that he wanted to get into Baltimore, and that the parent company of the Bank of Baltimore was the only bank in town on the market.

First Fidelity Bancorp. was in a position yesterday to buy Baltimore Bancorp because of managerial skill, falling interest rates -- and a big dollop of luck.The New Jersey-based regional banking titan had only a fraction of the real estate lending problems of peer banks such as MNC Financial Inc., parent of Maryland National Bank, and Edison, N.J.-based Midlantic Corp., in large part because of disasters that hit in 1988.The bank lost about $150 million on loans to a developer who renovated old factories and warehouses into apartments (including the Sail Cloth Factory in Baltimore)

An attempt by NationsBank Corp. to set up one subsidiary bank serving both Maryland and the District of Columbia hit a political snag, as an influential Washington official filed a protest with federal regulators last week.Charlene Drew Jarvis, who chairs the Washington City Council's Committee on Economic Development, complained that the proposed maneuver could leave the District without control over the operations of a bank doing business within the city limits, she wrote in a letter to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)

Since everybody agrees that Hugh McColl is a very brilliant fellow, it will now be a thing of beauty to watch him attempt to prove it. Already, he has proved it for Charlotte, N.C., where he's the darling of the moment. Automatically, though, this makes him a potential persona non banker around here.Did you see him on television last week from Chicago? With everybody around here looking on like orphans with our faces against the window of some terrific party from which we'd been excluded, there was McColl playing kissy-face with Jerry Richardson, the owner of the brand new Carolina Panthers.

Howard County police are looking for an armed robber who eluded a helicopter and search dog team after holding up a West Friendship bank yesterday morning.No injuries were reported in the robbery at the Maryland National Bank in the 12600 block of Frederick Road.Police are not sure if the robbery is related to the holdup of the Commercial and Farmer's Bank two weeks ago in the 12800 block of Frederick Road.About 10:45 a.m., the suspect entered the bank, announced a robbery and took an undisclosed amount of money from the tellers.

Frank P. Bramble Sr., who helped lead MNC Financial Inc. through its darkest days and delivered a far healthier company into the hands of NationsBank Corp. one week ago, unexpectedly announced yesterday that he would leave the company by the end of the year.Citing his desire to be the leader of a company again, MNC's former president and chief executive said he planned to spend his time looking for a new job, and helping coach his sons' basketball team. "I've missed too many games lately," he said yesterday.

Masked bandit holds up bank in Owen BrownA bank robber wearing a black ski mask held up an Owen Brown bank Tuesday morning, but he was foiled when dye packs attached to the money exploded, Howard County police said.Police are still investigating the armed robbery at the Maryland National Bank in the 7100 block of Cradlerock Way. No injuries were reported.According to police, the suspect, armed with a semi-automatic handgun, entered the bank around 11:49 a.m. and immediately jumped over the teller counter.

The health of Maryland's banking industry improved significantly in the fourth quarter of 1992, as some of the state's largest banks put their asset problems behind them, according to IDC Financial Publishing Inc.An asset-weighted statewide measure of the banks, based on more than a dozen financial factors, saw Maryland's rating improve to 175 in the fourth quarter of 1992, from 130 the previous quarter. On IDC's scale, 1 is the worst and 300 is the best.In the same period, the United States average climbed to 184 from 165, according to IDC.Since the end of last year, most Maryland banks have continued to show strong earnings as the real estate problems that plagued them have abated.