Riggs Bank

Riggs National Corporation
IndustryBanking
Founded1836; 188 years ago (1836)
FounderWilliam Wilson Corcoran
DefunctMay 13, 2005; 19 years ago (2005-05-13)
FateAcquired by PNC Financial Services
HeadquartersWashington, D.C., U.S.
Key people
 Anthony P. Terracciano, Chairman
Steven T. Tamburo, CFO
Total assets$6.008 billion (2004)
Total equity$0.317 billion (2004)
Number of employees
1,307 (2004)
Footnotes / references
[1]
Former Riggs National Bank headquarters, on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. The rightmost section is the American Security and Trust Company Building.
Former Riggs Bank building, now the Riggs Washington DC Hotel.

Riggs Bank was a bank headquartered in Washington, D.C. For most of its history, it was the largest bank headquartered in that city. On May 13, 2005, after the exposure of several money laundering scandals, the bank was acquired by PNC Financial Services.

The bank was known for handling the personal financial affairs of many U.S. Presidents and many embassies in Washington, D.C. Twenty-three U.S. Presidents or their families banked at Riggs, including Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Richard Nixon. Accounts were also held by Senators Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun and Daniel Webster, Confederate president Jefferson Davis, American Red Cross founder Clara Barton, suffragist Susan B. Anthony, and generals William Tecumseh Sherman and Douglas MacArthur.

The bank billed itself as "the most important bank in the most important city in the world".[2] Its DC headquarters were pictured on the back of an old ten dollar bill.[3]

The bank was investigated for several money laundering scandals, including going to great lengths to allow former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to hide his fortune after his accounts were subjected to asset freezing and for unknowingly allowing the hijackers involved in the September 11 attacks to transfer money due to lax controls at the bank.

  1. ^ "Riggs National Corporation 2004 Form 10-K Annual Report". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
  2. ^ O'Brien, Timothy L. (2004-07-19). "At Riggs Bank, A Tangled Path Led to Scandal". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-11-29.
  3. ^ "Riggs Bank Was "The Bank of Presidents"". Architect of the Capital. 4 September 2016. Retrieved 2022-11-29.