Short Takes: 1st Maryland Shifting Trust Operations to Va.

First Maryland Bancorp, Baltimore, is setting up a new stand-alone trust subsidiary in Virginia to house its trust business from Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia.

Until now, Allied Irish Banks' $10.5 billion-asset American subsidiary ran most of the $6.3 billion under management and $40 billion under administration through the trust department of its lead bank, First National Bank of Maryland. Regulations prohibit First Maryland from holding all its trust assets there.

For instance, trust assets from Pennsylvania clients are held by York Bank and Trust Co.

The new company, FMB Trust Co., will be formed by yearend and reside in one of the branches of recently acquired First Washington Bancorp in Virginia, a state with reciprocal trust powers.

Walter R. Fatzinger Jr., president of the bank's Washington, D.C., subsidiary, said FMB Trust will provide a solution to the conundrum of managing trust assets in different legal entities.

He added that the new name will streamline marketing efforts. "First National Bank of Maryland is too long a name and too geographically specific," Mr. Fatzinger said.

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