Riggs National Corp.

	'96 (in $ 000s)	'95 (in $ 000s)
Assets	5,135,100	4,732,533
Net Income	65,943	87,802
Rank Last Year: 10

Description:
Riggs National Corp. is a bank-holding company and the parent company of Riggs National Bank, which has operations in Britain and France as well as the Washington region. The bank has 32 branches in the District, 16 in Virginia and nine in Maryland.

Business Resume: Contact Info -- 1503 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, D.C. 20005 301-887-6000 Main Business -- Banking Founded -- 1836 Chairperson -- Joe L. Allbritton (CEO) President -- Timothy C. Coughlin Employees -- 1,519 D.C.-Area Employees -- 1,440

Developments:
As one of the last remaining large commercial banks based in the Washington area, Riggs continues to be the subject of much takeover speculation, which analysts say is reflected in its stock price. But executives have continually maintained that the bank is not for sale.

At the beginning of the year, Riggs announced it was separating some business functions into a new division that will specialize in providing financial services to high-income individuals. The division, called Riggs & Co., contains the bank's trust department, domestic and international private banking functions and its investment management activities, including its proprietary money-market funds.

Bank executives said there are no plans to separate the new division from the core bank, as some other banking institutions have done in recent years. Riggs executives said they created the division to try to alter the impression many investors have that banks aren't able to handle all their financial needs, such as investments.