SEATTLE - The FBI says there were 176 bank robberies in Washington last year, a 35 percent decrease from the year before.

The FBI says it's the first time in 20 years there have been fewer than 200 annual bank holdups in the state, which ranks 11th nationally in bank robberies. The FBI credits the work of the Puget Sound Violent Crimes Task Force and a robbery prevention program called SafeCatch in which 300 bank branches have been trained.

The loss to the banking industry in Washington in 2007 was $700,000. The FBI says 61 percent of the robberies were solved.

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