EXHIBIT 99.1



             REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM



Board of Directors
Royal Bancshares of Pennsylvania, Inc.
   and Subsidiaries

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheet of Royal Bancshares
of Pennsylvania, Inc. and Subsidiaries as of December 31, 2003, and the related
consolidated statements of income, stockholders' equity, and cash flows for each
of the two years in the period ended December 31, 2003. These financial
statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our
responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on
our audits.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company
Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan
and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial
statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a
test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial
statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and
significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall
financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a
reasonable basis for our opinion.

In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in
all material respects, the consolidated financial position of Royal Bancshares
of Pennsylvania, Inc. and Subsidiaries as of December 31, 2003, and the
consolidated results of their operations and cash flows for the each of the two
years in the period ended December 31, 2003, in conformity with accounting
principles generally accepted in the United States of America.




/s/ Grant Thornton LLP
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
January 22, 2004