As if the small matter of a lost $750 million (€859.5 million) was not enough, Allfirst was hit by robberies at three of its branches in Baltimore at the weekend. The first was on Friday at a bank at 254th Street and Kirk Avenue where two men forced the employees at gunpoint into a vault and then cleaned out the safe.

They escaped with what FBI special agent Peter Gulotta described as a "way above average" sum.

Later a teller at a branch in the Highlandtown district gave money to a man who handed over a threatening note, and three minutes after that a different man robbed a cashier in Pikesville neighbourhood.

Allfirst has 250 high street banks in Maryland, Virgina and Washington DC.