In enforcement actions made public this week, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency entered a written agreement with a community bank in Marquette, Neb., barred the former head of a Fort Mitchell, Ky., bank from the industry, and imposed a $57,000 fine on National City Bank.
The OCC criticized the 117-year-old First National Bank of Marquette for poor staffing policies, lax credit control, and shoddy loan documentation and ordered it to submit plans to improve in all three areas.
The regulator ordered the $25.5 million-asset bank to hire an outside consultant to review its loan portfolio. As of Sept. 30, 3.27% of First National's $13.9 million portfolio was classified as nonperforming.
The OCC also issued a consent order involving Richard M. Thomas, who stepped down as the chief executive officer of First National Bank of Northern Kentucky in August 2002. The order requires him to pay a $10,000 fine, reimburse it $50,000, and sell his stock in it. He is also banned from having any dealings with federally insured financial institutions.
Mr. Thomas did not admit any wrongdoing, but the OCC forced him to quit after he failed to tighten his $80 million-asset bank's credit policies, despite being instructed to do so in June 2001. The bank was later forced to write off $11 million of bad loans he had authorized, including more than $5 million to one borrower.
In the case of the $124 billion-asset banking subsidiary of National City Corp., the OCC ordered it to pay its civil money penalty to the National Flood Insurance Program. The Cleveland company did not admit any wrongdoing.
