Mercantile Bankshares Corp.

Dennis W. Kreiner, a former Mercantile-Safe Deposit and Trust Co. senior vice president, died of complications from diabetes Monday at his home in Phoenix, Baltimore County. He was 66. Born in Baltimore, he spent his early childhood in the Latrobe...

Bruce Page Wilson, former president of Mercantile-Safe Deposit & Trust Co., who earlier had been president of the old Baltimore & Annapolis Railroad, died July 5 of complications from a stroke at Nubbin Ridge, his Green Spring Valley home, where he had...

Edwin F. Hale Sr., the Baltimore trucking magnate and developer, said Friday that he has retired as chief executive and chairman of First Mariner Bancorp — the banking company he built, only to scramble in the housing market collapse and recession...

The winds of economic destruction blow as hard in Baltimore as anywhere else. But business brainpower tends to stay anchored to the land of pleasant living. Alex. Brown is long gone, but the firm's tradition and former employees carry on at Brown...

On the day last week that Bank of America announced sweeping cost-cuts, including the elimination of 30,000 jobs, executives at BlueRidge Bank celebrated a milestone for the three-year-old financial company. The Frederick-based community bank opened a...

Just five years ago, PNC Bank had virtually no presence in Baltimore. Today, it is Maryland's third-largest financial institution by deposits, after Bank of America and M&T Bank. PNC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer James E. Rohr has led the growth...

Unlike some Democratic governors and mayors, at least William Donald Schaefer had a dialogue with Maryland business leaders. If you can call a blistering, hold-the-phone-from-the-ear conversation a dialogue. "When the governor calls me, I know what's...

A nervous banker is a good banker, and there are plenty of nervous bankers these days. After eight years of surging profits and rapid loan growth, bankers are worried this year that the slowing economy will result in more problem loans and a stunted...

Places and prospects Housing How the housing sector will perform is critical to the area's economy. New homes drive demand for building materials such as lumber, siding, brick and Sheetrock, and fuel construction and supplier jobs. Consumers buying both...

Millions of fingers would freeze in mid-typing right now if everyone in the world could keep in mind what a minefield e-mail can be. Consider what Tom Ryan, an information technology director, discovered when he downloaded software to analyze a week's...