Somebody Said Something

National City Corporation confirmed the rumors: it entered a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland on April 29 and an MOU with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on May 5. National City chairman, president and CEO Peter E. Raskind was less than thrilled. “Generally, the relationship between a bank and its regulators is characterized by confidentiality,” Raskind said in a statement released on June 10. “Unfortunately, however, someone has breached the confidential relationship between National City and our regulators,” he continued. “These MOU’s address the issues of capital management, risk management, asset quality and liquidity management which have already been disclosed and discussed,” Raskind complains. If so, why the fuss? Well, confidentiality can key to a bank’s stability. Did not commenting to begin with boost confidence in National City? This piece of news should: “Following our recent $7-billion capital raise, National City has the highest Tier 1 capital ratio among large banks in the United States,” Raskind crows.