Sovereign Bank

Sovereign Bank is the latest institution to replace debit cards compromised in a security breach at BJ's Wholesale Club Inc. The Philadelphia-based bank said it mailed letters last month to 83,000 customers warning them that their accounts were possibly at risk and telling them that replacement cards would arrive by next week. "Based on the work of the U.S. Secret Service, we decided to take a broad approach," Sovereign spokesman Dick Ehst said. The Secret Service, which enforces laws protecting currency and payment systems, is investigating the security breach.

Before he became a centerfielder for the Riversharks two years ago, Dwight Maness cleaned out his locker at the end of every baseball season. But Camden is different, said Maness, 29, a Delaware native who, despite a year-to-year contract, keeps his gear stowed away. "I have this sense of home. The fans know me. I know them. " The mounting fear that the Riversharks could fold under a pile of money troubles has worried those who have played for the minor-league team and watched Sharks games at Campbell's Field under a striking view of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.

Optimism that the Riversharks baseball team could work out its financial problems is giving way to fears the club may fail before opening day. Officials said an agreement on restructuring the team's crushing debt load must be reached soon or the team might have to file for bankruptcy. But a complex deal to refinance the debt is encountering opposition from the Delaware River Port Authority, which says it would be shortchanged by $2 million. Loss of the minor-league team would be a major setback to efforts to revitalize the Camden waterfront, which is being transformed into a tourist destination.

Investors pounced on shares of Sovereign Bancorp after its chairman, Jay Sidhu, said last week that the bank was for sale at the right price. The rumor mill matched up the Philadelphia bank with Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania and with Washington Mutual Inc. Fleet Bank is also said to be shopping for bank branches in the hotly competitive Philadelphia market. But do not expect a sequel to 1998's Bank Sign Bingo, the last wave of consolidation to hit these parts. "It may look like the time to do it, but there aren't that many candidates to go," said Arnold G. Danielson, chairman of Danielson Associates.

A second lender has sued B.J. Marchese Auto World of Limerick, whose business manager, Benjamin J. Marchese 3d, has been charged with using identity theft to obtain bank loans. Sovereign Bank of Easton earlier this month filed a civil suit in Montgomery County Court against the auto dealer and claimed it used fraud to obtain $2.3 million in auto loans. The bank's lawsuit charges that Benjamin Marchese 3d engaged in a scheme to dupe it into making loans to fictitious customers.

Police are investigating two separate bank robberies in Montgomery County on Friday evening, neither of which appears related to a recent rash of bank holdups in the Philadelphia area, authorities said. The incidents bring to nine the unofficial count of bank robberies in the Philadelphia region in 15 days. Detectives are exploring any connections between Friday's robberies and recent heists in Philadelphia. In one of those crimes in Philadelphia, two men stole $239,200 on Tuesday from the Sentry Credit Union on Germantown Avenue, city police said.

Three blocks west of their old offices at the Philadelphia brokerage of Janney Montgomery Scott L.L.C., Michael Mufson and his team of 20 stock-pickers and -peddlers started a rival investment bank last week. Unlike 94-year-old Janney, their new employer, Commerce Bancorp Inc., which is based in Cherry Hill, has little experience in the business of taking local companies public, researching stock values, and pitching their shares to big mutual funds and pension plans. So the move represents a vote of confidence, not only in Mufson and his group, but also in the current weak investment market, and in Commerce chairman Vernon Hill's ambitions for his company as a rising financial power.

Also in this column: Marketing pitch Tiny Curtis grows Happy birthday? Philadelphia-area banks are getting ready to buy a whole lot of new signs - and to do a lot of explaining to confused customers. Concord EFS of Memphis, which recently merged the Wilmington-based MAC automatic-teller network with two other systems, is giving banks and merchants that offer the machines a year and a half to scrap their MAC Card signs and install new Concord Star Systems logos.

A Camden man who is charged with robbing a Clementon bank Tuesday and is a suspect in seven other bank robberies in South Jersey was ordered held without bail yesterday, pending a detention hearing in U.S. District Court next month. Anthony L. Livingston, 29, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Kugler in Camden on a charge that he robbed the Sovereign Bank on Berlin Road in Clementon of $952 shortly after 2 p.m. Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana Carrig told the court that Livingston was a drug addict and had a lengthy criminal record.

Meet Justin Burkhardt. He's an energetic, mile-a-minute talker with a contagious enthusiasm. He meets, he greets, he does magic tricks. He is a one-man hospitality, personality machine. He also has mental retardation and cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair. But his charisma is anything but confined. Employees at Sovereign Bank at Lancaster Avenue and Spring Mill Road, where he has been working as a greeter for about a month, say his presence has made the banking experience more pleasant for customers.