North Carolina bank to do the right thing

The regional bank BB&T Corp., headquartered in Winston-Salem, has announced it will no longer loan money to private developers who acquire land through acts of eminent domain. BB&T is the ninth largest bank in the US with 1400 branches in 11 states, including Washington, D.C..

John Allison, chairman and chief executive, said,

"The idea that a citizen's property can be taken by the government solely for private use is extremely misguided, in fact it's just plain wrong."

BB&T chief credit officer Ken Chalk added,

"We're a company where our values dictate our decision-making and operating standards. From that standpoint, this was a straightforward decision; it's simply the right thing to do."

Interesting note: The News-record.com, source of this report, seems to have acknowledged the washingtonpost.com-Deborah Howell fiasco with open comments to web items (discussed here). At the bottom of the web page, see this announcement by the News-record.

We've had to postpone our plans to allow readers to append comments to individual articles until we can put additional safeguards in place, and we apologize for the delay.

I'll bet. I'll bet they stomped that program dead so fast the tar hasn't dried on their heels as yet.

TAGS: Eminent Domain, Kelo, SCOTUS, BB&T, Deborah Howell