Sovereign Bank

Police are looking for a man who staged stickups at two banks two blocks apart in Southwest Philadelphia this morning. It is not clear yet if the thief made off with any money from the M&T Bank branch at 6301 Woodland Ave. or the Sovereign Bank branch at 6500 Woodland Ave. Police are using a photo taken from surveillance video in their hunt for the bandit.

In the Region National-bank approval for Sovereign Sovereign Bank, which has 70 branches in the Philadelphia region, said it received regulatory approval to convert from a savings bank to a national bank. The Boston-based bank, formerly with headquarters near Reading, is a subsidiary of Spain's Banco Santander S.A. Sovereign said the change would allow it to conduct more business with large corporations. Traditionally, savings banks have emphasized residential real estate lending.

Sovereign Bank, which has 70 branches in the Philadelphia region, said it received regulatory approval to convert from a savings bank to a national bank. The Boston-based bank, which used to be headquartered near Reading, is a subsidiary of Spain's Banco Santander S.A. Sovereign said the change would allow it to conduct more business with large corporations. Traditionally, savings banks have emphasized residential real estate lending. - Harold Brubaker

U.S. hiring, business, and investment will stay slow for years. That's what people who ought to know - about 1,200 private-company investors and deal-makers who packed the Association for Corporate Growth's yearly conclave - were telling one another at the Convention Center last week. "The big internal debate in our firm is whether the malaise is going to go on for five to seven years, or seven to 10," Mike Conaton , New York-based managing partner at buyout firm Cyprium Partners , said.

A serial bank robber from Philadelphia was indicted by a federal grand jury yesterday for robbing eight area banks in July, in a spree that spanned Center City, Kensington and South Philadelphia. John Digman, 48, was charged with bank robbery and attempted bank robbery for the heists between July 11 and 27, 2011, said United States Attorney Zane David Memeger. Digman was captured August 1 in Trevose at the Lincoln Motel on Route 1, whose clientele was recently described in an Inquirer story as "nasty" by a desk clerk.

Business was mostly bad for many of the dim-witted dolts who robbed banks in the city last year. Forty bandits ended up behind bars, including 13 who were caught with the help of eagle-eyed Daily News readers who called in tips to investigators after seeing photos of the crooks in the paper, said Special Agent Bastian Freund, a bank-robbery coordinator for the FBI's Philadelphia Division. Freund said 94 banks were held up in 2010, a 28 percent decrease from the year before.

A serial bank robber known as the "Mummy Bandit" pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court, authorities said. Hiram Joseph Adams, 45, of Mount Airy, had disguised his face and hands with gauze bandages and robbed four banks since January 2009 in Philadelphia and Montgomery County. Adams almost got away with a fifth robbery in Chestnut Hill, but the teller fainted when he told her he had a bomb, authorities said. Police arrested Adams on Aug. 4 as he prepared to hit an Alliance Bank branch in Havertown, U.S. Attorney Zane Memeger said.

Wachovia Bank, now part of Wells Fargo & Co., maintained its hold on the largest share of deposits in the eight-county Philadelphia region during the year ended June 30, according to data released Thursday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The only change in the region's top five was the disappearance of Sovereign Bank, whose share fell to 3.4 percent in June from 6.6 percent the year before, as deposits at a branch on Market Street in Center City declined $3.6 billion, or 76 percent.

Customers USA Bank will be acquiring Reading-based Berkshire Bancorp the Jay S. Sidhu-led Customers announced yesterday. Berkshire, a $150 million bank holding company, has five offices in the Reading area. Sidhu had been chief executive of Wyomissing-based Sovereign Bank until he was ousted in 2006. Sovereign is now owned by Spain's Banco Santander S.A. The price was not announced, but it will be based on Berskhire's book value at the end of the month before the deal is completed early next year.

Jay S. Sidhu's New Century Bank, blocked recently by a federal judge from using the name Customers 1st Bank because it was already being used by Broomall's Alliance Bank on checking accounts, is renaming itself Customers USA Bank instead, the Phoenixville company said. The bank has seven offices in Bucks, Chester and Delaware Counties and this month plans to open branches in Wyomissing, Berks County, and in Yardley. Wyomissing was home base for Sovereign Bank, which Sidhu led until he was ousted in 2006.