Mercantile

PNC Financial Services Group's layoffs in Maryland resulting from its acquisition of Mercantile Bankshares Corp. will hit Linthicum, Baltimore City and Frederick the hardest, according to notices the company filed with the state labor department. PNC notified nearly 900 Mercantile employees in Maryland and surrounding states that their positions are being eliminated. Company officials have declined to say exactly how many employees will lose their jobs because some employees might leave on their own and others might move to other positions.

Banking executive Edward J. "Ned" Kelly III, who as head of Baltimore's Mercantile Bankshares Corp. oversaw its sale to PNC Financial Services Group, is giving up his post at the combined company for a job at Washington-based Carlyle Group, one of the world's largest private equity firms. Kelly has been tapped to help run a new Carlyle unit that will invest in financial services, including banks and insurance companies. He said the firm approached him in recent months, and that he has known Carlyle founder David M. Rubenstein since they both worked on Walter F. Mondale's failed presidential bid more than two decades ago. "It's a unique opportunity and makes perfect sense for me," Kelly said yesterday in an interview.

PNC Financial Services Group has notified several hundred employees of Mercantile Bankshares Corp., the Baltimore bank it acquired this year, that their jobs are being eliminated as the financial institutions merge back-office and administrative operations. Affected employees were informed by a manager and human resources representative during individual meetings that began last week. They discussed severance and other opportunities at Pittsburgh-based PNC, which has 200 job openings in Maryland, and the employees were given at least two more months before they have to leave.

State police are looking for a suspect in a bank robbery yesterday in Harford County. About 10 a.m., a man entered the Mercantile County Bank branch in the 1300 block of Riverside Parkway in Belcamp and demanded money from the teller. The man, who did not display a weapon, wore a baseball cap and dark-colored shorts, police said. He was described as white, about 35 years old, 5 feet 8 inches tall, with short, light brown hair and possibly a goatee. Anyone with information is asked to call the Bel Air barracks of the state police at 410-838-4101.

Lucille Ingalls remembers going to work as a teller at an affiliate of Mercantile Bankshares Corp. in Virginia during World War II. She stayed even after the soldiers returned from abroad, rising to the post of senior vice president and watching the banking industry evolve through the dawning of the automated teller machine. J. Donald Henyon, head of Mercantile's affiliate in Laurel for more than a decade, remembers life as a community pillar, firing up the popcorn machine for customers on Saturdays and making it a point to never be seen gambling at the nearby horse tracks.

As psychological trauma goes, losing a job ranks with divorce and the death of a loved one at the top of the scale. Shame there's so much paperwork. The 11-page contract that laid-off employees from PNC Financial Services Group must sign is the most complicated severance deal I've seen for anybody without a regular seat on a corporate jet. Hundreds of former Mercantile Bankshares workers have to think about whether to select "Option A" or "Option B" in their PNC separation deals. They're supposed to apply for state unemployment benefits, even while collecting severance checks from the company.

Prince George's man charged in tanker theft A Prince George's County man was arrested and charged yesterday with hijacking a diesel fuel tanker truck from a Curtis Bay fuel depot last week. Willie Orlando McKinnon, 43, of the 4800 block of 66th Ave. in Hyattsville was arrested by Prince George's County and Baltimore police in the 4800 block of Ravenswood Road in Hyattsville about 3:30 p.m. on a warrant charging him with armed robbery, hijacking and theft. Cpl. Arvel Lewis, a Prince George's police spokesman, said McKinnon's arrest came after police received reliable information from concerned citizens.

Maryland State Police arrested two men accused of being accomplices of a man wanted for eight bank robberies in Harford and Cecil counties. Police charged Antonio Christopher Butler, 21, of Essex and Jeridan Kevin Harris, 22, whose last known address was in Joppa, with robbery, theft over $500 and conspiracy to commit robbery. State police, FBI and Harford and Cecil County sheriffs are looking for John William Burton, 44, a suspect in robberies of Mercantile Bank in Aberdeen on July 16; BB&T Bank in Churchville on July 27; Harford Bank in Abingdon on July 30; Wachovia Bank in Bel Air on Aug. 13; Cecil Bank in Rising Sun on Aug. 27; Mercantile County Bank in Belcamp on Sept.

The bank that some of Baltimore's best-known captains of industry and finance entrusted with their money for more than 143 years ceased to exist yesterday as PNC Financial Services Group announced it has completed its $6 billion cash and stock purchase of Mercantile Bankshares Corp. In a statement announcing the sale's completion, the Pittsburgh bank said customers of Mercantile and its network of affiliate banks should continue to use Mercantile's services "as usual" in the months leading up to a planned transition to PNC accounts.

In a move to cut fees charged to Baltimore's retirement system, the city's Board of Estimates approved the transfer of nearly $3 billion in accounts this week from Mercantile Safe-Deposit and Trust Co. to Pittsburgh-based Mellon Bank.Under the new contract, Mellon Bank will manage the assets from the Employees' Retirement System, the Fire and Police Retirement System and the Elected Officials' Retirement System.The retirement systems serve about 27,000 active and retired workers.City Comptroller Joan M. Pratt said Mercantile, which had held the management contract for 21 years, was too costly because the Baltimore-based bank had to hire subcontractors for some of its services.

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.

James A. Hooper, a retired Mercantile Bank executive, died of complications from an infection Friday at St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 97 and had lived in Ruxton for many years. Born in Baltimore and raised in Mount Washington, he was a 1930 Polytechnic Institute graduate. He attended the Johns Hopkins University before receiving his law degree from the University of Baltimore in 1942. He volunteered to serve in the Marine Corps during World War II. He was stationed at Okinawa and left the service as a first lieutenant.

Banking executive Edward J. "Ned" Kelly III earned nearly $15 million last year in salary, bonus and other payments after PNC Financial Services Group acquired Baltimore's Mercantile Bankshares Corp., according to documents filed yesterday. Kelly, Mercantile's former chief executive, had taken a vice chairman role at PNC after the deal was completed a year ago, but he quit in late June to join the Carlyle Group. He's now an executive at Citigroup Inc., of New York. Kelly declined to comment yesterday, through a spokeswoman.

Prince George's man charged in tanker theft A Prince George's County man was arrested and charged yesterday with hijacking a diesel fuel tanker truck from a Curtis Bay fuel depot last week. Willie Orlando McKinnon, 43, of the 4800 block of 66th Ave. in Hyattsville was arrested by Prince George's County and Baltimore police in the 4800 block of Ravenswood Road in Hyattsville about 3:30 p.m. on a warrant charging him with armed robbery, hijacking and theft. Cpl. Arvel Lewis, a Prince George's police spokesman, said McKinnon's arrest came after police received reliable information from concerned citizens.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Pennsylvania's biggest bank, said third-quarter profit rose 23 percent as its acquisition of Baltimore's Mercantile Bankshares Corp. helped generate higher fee revenue. Excluding a gain last year from an investment in fund manager BlackRock Inc., earnings climbed to $469 million, or $1.37 a share, from $380 million, or $1.28, for the third quarter last year, the Pittsburgh company said yesterday. Exceeds estimates Per-share profit was 2 cents higher than the average estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Lucille Ingalls remembers going to work as a teller at an affiliate of Mercantile Bankshares Corp. in Virginia during World War II. She stayed even after the soldiers returned from abroad, rising to the post of senior vice president and watching the banking industry evolve through the dawning of the automated teller machine. J. Donald Henyon, head of Mercantile's affiliate in Laurel for more than a decade, remembers life as a community pillar, firing up the popcorn machine for customers on Saturdays and making it a point to never be seen gambling at the nearby horse tracks.

Maryland State Police arrested two men accused of being accomplices of a man wanted for eight bank robberies in Harford and Cecil counties. Police charged Antonio Christopher Butler, 21, of Essex and Jeridan Kevin Harris, 22, whose last known address was in Joppa, with robbery, theft over $500 and conspiracy to commit robbery. State police, FBI and Harford and Cecil County sheriffs are looking for John William Burton, 44, a suspect in robberies of Mercantile Bank in Aberdeen on July 16; BB&T Bank in Churchville on July 27; Harford Bank in Abingdon on July 30; Wachovia Bank in Bel Air on Aug. 13; Cecil Bank in Rising Sun on Aug. 27; Mercantile County Bank in Belcamp on Sept.

Maryland State Police, the FBI and the Cecil and Harford counties sheriffs' departments are looking for a man charged with robbing at least eight banks in Harford and Cecil counties since mid-July. Police said John William Burton, 44, is suspected in the robbery of the Chesapeake Bank branch on Bel Air South Parkway about 11 a.m. yesterday. Burton also is suspected in the robbery about an hour later of Mercantile County Bank in Bel Camp, the second time since Sept. 6 that branch has been robbed.

State police are looking for a suspect in a bank robbery yesterday in Harford County. About 10 a.m., a man entered the Mercantile County Bank branch in the 1300 block of Riverside Parkway in Belcamp and demanded money from the teller. The man, who did not display a weapon, wore a baseball cap and dark-colored shorts, police said. He was described as white, about 35 years old, 5 feet 8 inches tall, with short, light brown hair and possibly a goatee. Anyone with information is asked to call the Bel Air barracks of the state police at 410-838-4101.

James Rohr, chief executive of PNC Financial Services Group, knows how to make inroads in a community as an out-of-towner acquiring a treasured local institution. Before his Pittsburgh-based PNC acquired Baltimore's Mercantile Bankshares Corp. last year, it bought up Washington-based Riggs National Corp., which like Mercantile traces its history in its hometown to the mid-1800s. Last week Rohr traveled to Baltimore to nurture client relationships and to meet with people like H. Furlong Baldwin, who was Mercantile's CEO for 25 years until 2001 and who remains a mover-shaker in the city.