4-25-2005 Denver, CO- Sample News posting Sample News posting Sample News posting:

The Fed's board of governors, including Chairman Alan Greenspan, voted 7-0 Tuesday to clear the merger, finding that Pittsburgh-based PNC's stock-and-cash acquisition of Riggs National Corp. would not threaten competition or unduly concentrate banking resources.

Riggs Bank, with a 169-year-old history as a prestigious Washington institution where presidents kept their bank accounts, will disappear as an independent concern.

The two sides, which first announced their intention to combine last July, have had a rocky road to a merger and sharp public disputes over the buying price as Riggs' legal problems proliferated.

The bank pleaded guilty in January to a felony charge and agreed to pay a $16 million criminal fine for failing to report suspicious transactions involving foreigners, including former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and government officials of Equatorial Guinea.

The fine is the largest criminal penalty of that type ever imposed on a bank the size of Riggs — a midsize institution with some $6.4 billion in assets — according to Justice Department prosecutors. Last May, Riggs agreed to pay a record $25 million civil fine levied by a Treasury Department agency.

PNC, a regional banking powerhouse, is more than 12 times as big as Riggs, with 774 branches in six states and around $80 billion in assets. It has also had regulatory problems of its own.

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