Community groups challenge PNC-Riggs merger

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Community groups challenge PNC-Riggs merger

By David Weidner
Last Updated: 8/16/2004 2:53:00 PM

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The protest, made in filings to the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, asks that regulators block the proposed $779 million acquisition of Riggs (RIGS) announced in mid-July.


ICP also submitted lending data for PNC in key markets. The bank, according to the 21-page filing, denied the mortgage applications of black borrowers four times more often than those of whites in its home base of Pittsburgh.

The group also said the Riggs sale may "undermine the ongoing credible investigation that the administration has promised." Riggs was fined $25 million earlier this year and ordered to revise its internal controls after officials uncovered a money-laundering scheme for foreign diplomats.

"Riggs is essentially a crime scene," said Matthew Lee, ICP's general counsel, in a statement. "It shouldn't be sold so quickly, least of all to an unqualified bank like PNC, which we have now proved funds high-cost payday lenders."

http://www.investors.com/breakingnews.asp?journalid=22686499&brk=1