Pnc

Six executives of PNC Bank Corp. were among the passengers who died in the crash of USAir Flight 427. Among them was Frank A. Santamaria, 37, who only recently returned to PNC headquarters in Pittsburgh after a 2 1/2 year assignment in Philadelphia. "We have lost six valued colleagues," Thomas H. O'Brien, chairman and chief executive officer of PNC, said in a statement issued yesterday. "Throughout our company, we are all grieving at the tragic loss. Our hearts are with their families and the families of all the passengers and crew," O'Brien said.

PNC Financial Corp. is shifting executives in a move likely to increase the centralization of the huge bank holding company in Pittsburgh and cut the autonomy of its subsidiary banks. PNC, parent of Provident National Bank in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh National Bank and other banks in 15 states, announced that Pittsburgh National chairman James E. Rohr had been named president of the parent company. That makes him second in command, after PNC's chief executive officer, Thomas H. O'Brien.

PNC Financial Serviced Group Inc. named Stephen M. Wynne chief executive of its Wilmington-based subsidiary PFPC, which provides transaction processing and other services to the global investment industry. Wynne is succeeding Timothy G. Shack, who will remain chairman of PFPC and chief information officer of PNC, Pittsburgh. Wynne has been at PFPC for 31 years, the company said. PFPC earned $128 million last year on revenue of $831 million, according to PNC financial statements.

PNC Financial Corp., the Pittsburgh company that owns Provident National Bank in Philadelphia, attributed higher profits for the latest quarter and six months to a strong basic banking business and "tight expense management. " "We continue to realize greater efficiencies throughout our banking network," said chairman Thomas H. O'Brien. He noted that the profit gains for the second quarter were achieved even though PNC had one-time gains in the second quarter of 1988 from sales of securities.

As it had predicted, PNC Financial Corp. yesterday reported a $168 million loss for the fourth quarter, wiping out nearly half of what the company earned in all of 1989. The Pittsburgh-based parent of Provident National Bank attributed the loss to the need to set aside a massive amount for problem loans. PNC put $430 million into its reserve for loan losses in the quarter after a regular examination of its loan portfolio by federal regulators. Thomas H. O'Brien, chairman, said the weakening economy hurt PNC and the banking industry in 1990.

By adding a 10th banking company to its impressive list of holdings, PNC Financial yesterday reasserted its dominance over banking throughout a big chunk of the nation's midsection. "Talk about muscle," said Anthony Davis, banking analyst at Wheat First Securities in Richmond, Va. "What they've got is clout. " PNC, which was created just five years ago from the merger of Philadelphia's Provident National and Pittsburgh National banks, is buying the second-biggest banking company in Delaware, the Bank of Delaware Corp.

PNC Financial Corp., the Pittsburgh- based parent of Provident National Bank, reported yesterday that growth and improved profit margins on its basic lending business led to higher net income in the first quarter. Also boosting profits, PNC reported, was higher income from fees on bank services such as charges on trust accounts. PNC's acquisition of Central Bancorp of Cincinnati, which was completed in the first quarter, substantially increased the company's assets, making it the largest banking company based in Pennsylvania.

Just as the Dow Jones industrial average was roaring to another record high Wednesday afternoon, Malcolm "Skip" Wilson, chief investment officer of Provident National Bank, was convening a decidedly bearish meeting of the PNC Financial Corp.'s investment policy committee. Gathered around the desk in his 11th-floor office in a building at 17th and Chestnut Streets were Robert Christian, director of economic research, and Lucinda S. Mezey, director of equity research. Voting members other than Wilson also attended via conference calls to their PNC-affiliated banks in Pittsburgh, Erie, Pa., and Louisville, Ky. Each month the committee reviews the research generated by the bank's analysts and sets out the strategy that PNC portfolio managers will follow in deploying roughly $40 billion in assets - with about half in money-market mutual funds and half in actively managed accounts that are balanced between stocks, bonds and cash.

First Union, Mellon, Chase, PNC - what's the difference, really? In town last week to rally his troops, PNC chairman Thomas O'Brien sketched the banking hierarchy like this: There are "the worldwide global conglomerates," such as Citigroup, Deutsche, HSBC, Chase. "Then there are major national players. Really, there's only one - Bank America. First Union and Bank One set out to do that. But they stubbed their toes on the execution" with ill-fated mergers, O'Brien said.

Roger S. Hillas, whose 37-year career at Provident National Bank took him from bookkeeping clerk to chairman of the bank's parent company, said yesterday he would leave to become executive of a beleaguered competitor, Meritor Financial Group. In what experts say is one of the more remarkable personnel shifts in Philadelphia banking, Hillas will replace Frederick S. Hammer as chairman and chief executive officer of Meritor. Meritor, whose principal subsidiary is PSFS, the area's largest bank, is in the midst of a massive restructuring brought on by a dismal financial record, including losses of about $400 million in the last year and a half.

The FBI released photos of the masked man in a suit and tie who used a pistol to rob the PNC Bank East Ambler branch on Saturday morning. The branch, at 1015 South Bethlehem Pike, was hit at approximately 8:30 a.m. by a man dressed in a suit jacket, tie and dark pants and wearing a white cloth bag or pillowcase, with eye holes cut out, over his head. The man, using a small black semi-automatic pistol, ordered everyone inside the bank down to the floor. No one was physically injured.

Kids go behind the scenes Saturday for PNC Arts Alive's annual Family Day at the Opera. The free event takes place at the Academy of Music from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. with timed entrances at 10 and 11. Children can do cool things such as learn how to conduct under the direction of Jeri Lynne Johnson, founder and music director of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra - and actually conduct members of the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra. Actor and fight director Payson Burt will show how fight scenes are done.

Joseph A. McBride, 66, of Glenolden, retired bank vice president and youth sports coach and referee, died of heart and lung disease Monday, Oct. 15, at home. Mr. McBride graduated from St. James High School in Chester in 1963. For two years he served in the Army at Fort Benning, Ga. After his discharge, he worked at Household Finance in West Philadelphia, where he met his future wife, Mary Jo O'Mahoney. In 1968, he joined Central Penn National Bank. While at Central Penn, he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration at night from Widener University.

Edwin C. Donaghy Jr. chose a usually cautious career, dealing with trust investments. But in World War II, he took far riskier assignments. Piloting P-47 Thunderbolt single-engine fighter planes, he survived 37 missions flying over Europe. "Heavy combat; never shot down, thank goodness," his wife, Sophie, said in a Thursday interview. Mr. Donaghy, 88, of Bryn Mawr, who retired in 1993 as vice president in the investment management division of the trust department of PNC Bank, died Monday, May 7, of pulmonary disease at Bryn Mawr Hospital.

The PNC Foundation has awarded grants totaling $1 million to extend regional access to performances and the arts. This year, the fourth of a five-year grant-making cycle, 25 organizations received funding through the PNC Arts Alive program, foundation officials said. The largest grant, $80,000, went to the Philadelphia Orchestra to support educational programs for young people around the city. PNC has consistently supported the orchestra's outreach effforts. The Asian Art Initiative, in contrast, is a first-time grantee, receiving $40,000 for a series of public workshops exploring two diverse neighborhoods - Chinatown and South Philadelphia.

The Barnes Foundation museum on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway will officially open May 19, becoming only the second home of the remarkable collection of impressionist and early modernist art in the foundation's 89-year history, Barnes officials announced at a news conference on the Parkway Thursday. The opening will be followed by 10 days of special visits to the new building and gardens, concluding with 60 hours of free, round-the-clock open access to the public on Memorial Day weekend, May 26 to 28, officials said.

PITTSBURGH - PNC Financial reported a nearly 13 percent increase in second-quarter earnings Wednesday, easily beating Wall Street expectations, as the regional bank set aside far less money to cover bad loans. Improving credit quality helped offset lower net interest income and lower revenue from overdraft fees. PNC posted net income of $888 million, or $1.67 per share, for the three months ended June 30. That was up from $786 million, or $1.47 per share, in the same quarter a year ago. Analysts surveyed by FirstCall had expected far lower earnings of $1.48 per share, on average, in the latest quarter.

A baseball-capped bandit struck out when he tried to rob a Bank of America on Allegheny Avenue near Jasper Street yesterday afternoon, so he changed clothes and headed to the PNC in Center City's Wills Eye Hospital, police said. On his second try, cops said, he took off with an undisclosed sum of cash. The robber, described as a medium-to-stocky white man in his 40s, about 5 feet 8 with salt-and-pepper hair and thin facial hair, was still on the loose last night. In both incidents, he presented a threatening note to the teller.