Big Philadelphia bank firm prepares word on 'rescue'

First Pennsylvania Corporation, parent of the nation's 23rd-largest bank, asked the New York Stock Exchange Monday to delay trading in its securities until it could respond to reports that it was seeking financial help. The chairman and president, George A. Butler, confirmed the bank had been holding talks with other financial institutions, but he would neither confirm nor deny reports that the plan under consideration included a $450 million rescue loan package from federal agencies and local banks. First Pennsylvania, Philadelphia's oldest bank, lost $1.5 million in the fourth quarter of 1979, and earnings during that year dropped 47 percent from 1978.