The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 21

NEY SECTION 4 it t. 1 Editor Carolyn Pione, cpioneenquirer.com Phone: 513-768-8373 Up Close Personal Your weekend databank YOUR LIFE, Yi OUR MO out dr 1 INVESTMENTS Congress questions PNC-Nat City deal Index Friday Daily Weekly close change change Dow Jones Industrials 9325,01 144.32 946.06 968.75 14.66 91.98 Nasdaq Composite 1720.95 22.43 168.92 Dollar vs. Euro $1.2759 0.0147 Gold $716.80 Crude Oil $67.81 1.85 3.66 10-Year T-Bonds 3.96 0.24 Full report, Page C3 By Sabrina Eaton The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer WASHINGTON House Republican leader John Boehner has joined the chorus of dismay on Capitol Hill over the Treasury Department's decision to let banks use taxpayer bailout money to make acquisitions, such as PNC Financial Services Group's purchase of Cleveland's National City Bank. The deal would make PNC the nation's fifth-largest bank and the third-largest in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. National City ranked third in Cincinnati in deposits, and PNC ranks fourth, according to the most recent Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

data. Boehner, R-West Chester Township, who strongly backed the $700 billion financial services bailout package that passed Congress last month, sent a sharply worded letter this week to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. It urged turmoil." "Mr. Secretary, funds made available under the economic rescue package should not be used to pay for bank acquisitions, raises, and executive bonuses," Boehner wrote. These certainly are not the types of expenditures Members of Congress envisioned when the plan was sent to the President earlier this month." Under National City's agreements, chairman and chief executive Peter Ras-kind and other upper-level executives are entitled to "change in control" buyout packages, which would be awarded when the bank is sold.

Raskind would be eligible for $8 million, after taxes, according to the bank's regulatory filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Paulson to ensure that acquisitions and executive bonuses aren't paid for with money provided under the Troubled Assets Relief Program, as the bailout program is called. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada also sent a letter to Paulson this week that urged him to restrict the use of "golden parachutes" by financial institutions that get tax dollars under the program. "We are concerned that such lavish severance packages could weaken public support for your critical efforts to stabilize the economy said the letter from Pelosi and Reid. Boehners letter stressed that the rescue package should focus "on its intended purpose: Helping Main Street get back on its feet during today's economic i m-ifa Associated Press file National City Corp.

agreed last week to be acquired by PNC Financial Services Group. It would become the third-largest bank in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. See BANK, Page C3 Housing Options for new lending system CET merging with 2 outlets from Dayton Stations to retain branding BUSINESS SUMMARY All Saints, McGuffey, Mason teams leaders in Stock Market Game After four weeks of the Stock Market Game, a team from All Saints School in Sycamore Township leads the elementary-school division. The Stockers from McGuffey Foundation School in Oxford lead the middle-school division and a team from Mason leads the high-school division in the game, which runs for 10 weeks. To view all the results of the 450 teams participating, go to Cincinnati.Com.

Search: Stock game. The Enquirer Job fair next week in Erlanger will have more than 90 employers ERLANGER More than 90 employers will be on hand for those looking for work in these tough economic times at the second-annual NKY Hires Vets First Job Fair on Wednesday at the Receptions Conference Banquet Center in Erlanger. The free job fair is sponsored by the Northern Kentucky Tri-County Economic Development Corp. For information, call 859-292-6666 or 859-371-0808. Jeff McKinney 1 1 Tracy Orr (right) and her family had their house in Pottsboro, Texas, saved from foreclosure by a good Samaritan.

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said the housing finance system needs safeguards to function under stress. The Dallas Morning News Michael Mulvey -i -i. -i. it I 1 J1 I 1 I -r Bernanke: Better safeguards needed P0CKETB00K AT THE PUMP The average price of regular unleaded gasoline per gallon at stations around the region. Friday Thursday Year ago Region are under the control of the federal government, Bernanke said.

The two mortgage giants were placed into con At a glance CET: Based: Cincinnati's West End. Analog: WCET-TV (Channel 48) Digitial: WCET-DT analog simulcast (Channel 48.1); World (Channel 48.1) Cable: Provides Time Warner Cable CET Kids (Channel 932) and CET Create (Channel 949). Web site: CETconnect.org THINKTV Based: Downtown Dayton. Analog: Dayton's WPTD-TV (Channel 16), Oxford's WPTO-TV (Channel 14). Digital: WPTD-DT analog simulcast (Channel Again prime-time repeats (Channel 16.3) Create how-toself-improvement shows (Channel 16.4) Ohio (Channel 16.5) HD (Channel 16.6).

WPTO-DT analog simulcast (Channel 14.2); Prime repeats of prime-time (Channel 14.3); Learn PBS Kids (Channel 14.4); World (Channel 14.5); HD (Channel 14.6) Web site: www.thinktv.org Boards for each station approved the merger this week. Many details must be worked out in the next three to six months, Dominic says. A consolidation could provide efficiencies in information technology, sales, program production, program acquisition, human resources and finance, says Bryan Dunn, CET board chairman. By John Kiesewetter jkiesewetterenquirer.com Public TV viewers in Southwestern Ohio will see more programming variety with the merger of Cincinnati's CET and the Dayton-based "ThinkTT stations, WPTD-TV (Channel 16) and WPTO-TV (Channel 14). The new nonprofit public media corporation will control 12 digital channels, so viewers could see different shows at various times, or divergent channel themes, says Jack Dominic, CET executive vice president and chief operating officer.

"It will open up opportunities for a more diverse programming lineup," says David Fogarty, 57, a 20-year ThinkTV manager who will be president of the combined organization. Yet each station will retain its own branding and facility, says Dominic, who will head the Cincinnati operation. Susan Howarth, president and CEO since 2001, will leave the station Friday. Although the CET board asked her to stay on, she has decided to seek other public media opportunities. "CET will stay the same.

Well still have an 'Action Well still have pledges. Both cities have a rich local identity, and we don't want to lose that," Dominic says. CET was the nation's first licensed public TV station in 1955. Fogarty, also vice president of Ohio Educational Television Stations, says the new firm will offer "a regional vision for local service." Greater Cincinnati $2.16 $2.20 $2.97 Northern Kentucky $2.38 $2.50 $3.00 Source: Oil Price Information Service AT THE FURNACE New York Mercantile Exchange natural gas spot price (per 1 million BTUs) Bernanke Friday: $6.75 Last week: $6.46 Year ago: $9.20 Source: Bloomberg News By Martin Cmtsinger The Associated Press WASHINGTON The housing finance system being constructed following the collapse of the current system will need better safeguards to allow it to function during times of stress, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said Friday. Whatever shape the new system takes should ensure that the institutions that support the financing of home mortgages do not pose a systemic risk to our financial markets and the economy, Bernanke said in a speech prepared for a housing conference in Berkeley, Calif.

He outlined a number of possible ways to structure housing finance in the future, but did not state his own preferences. The issue of how financing should be restructured was a good one for policymakers to address during what he called the current "time out" when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac credit histories," Bernanke said. But he said the credit problems went far beyond housing. "The boom in subprime mortgage lending was only part of a much broader credit boom characterized by under-pricing of risk, excessive leverage and the creation of complex and opaque financial instruments that proved fragile under stress," he said. The unwinding of these developments is the source of the severe financial strain and tight credit that now damp economic growth." He did not make any predictions on when the credit crisis would end or discuss the overall economy more broadly.

On Wednesday, the Fed cut the federal funds rate, the interest that banks charge one other, by a half-point to 1 percent, which ties the lowest level seen in the past half-century. While the Fed held out the prospect of further rate cuts to keep the economy out of a severe recession, Bernanke did not address that issue Friday. MORTGAGE RATES WEEKLY RATES, PASTYEAR servatorship Sept 7, part of a series of events that have unfolded as the biggest financial crisis in seven decades has hit the U.S. economy. Speaking about the credit crisis that started in August 2007, Bernanke said it began with the end of a prolonged housing boom in the U.S.

that exposed "serious deficiencies in the underwriting and credit rating" for mortgages, particularly subprime mortgages, loans made to borrowers with weak credit histories. Banks and thrifts are still making new mortgage loans during the current credit squeeze, but have tightened terms considerably, "essentially closing the private market to borrowers with weaker MONTHLY PAYMENT 7.0S t.5 -Jt lraiJDIJBuJj tM IAST WEEK: $1.153.72 "Pi" "MS FIXED RATE 5.5 5.0 4.5 THIS WEEK; $1,488.59 LASTWEEK: $1,505.26 31617 1 A i 0 ZOOS m. See CET, Page C2 0n 3 house mth a $1 75,000 mortgage, calculated based on rates supplied by the Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors' Mortgage Quote Service Source: Bloomberg News The Enquirer STOCK OF THE WEEK: FIFTH THIRD BANCORP Smucker plans to keep some Folgers work here after sale FDIC taps 53 to take over Freedom Bank operations S12 (For the week of Oct. 27-31) Exchange: NASDAQ Ticker. FITS $10.76 $10.77...,.

$10.85 By Alexander Coolidge Fifth Third Bancorp saw its share price climb more than 34 percent this week after the U.S. Treasury said it would buy $3.45 billion io jl r. $8.47 I I- I i 6 I js I 1 1 li i i i i i r- i i of its senior preferred stock: will move to Smucker headquarters in Orrville, Ohio. The Folgers deal, worth more than $3 billion, should close by the end of next week, Badertscher said. About 1,200 people work for Folgers, said spokesman Paul Fox About 250 work in the Folgers business at Winton Hills office, he said.

Badertscher also said Smucker is negotiating to buy the clock tower on the Ivorydale campus in St Bernard. By David Holthaus dholthausenquirer.com J.M. Smucker Co. will keep some Folgers work in Cincinnati after it closes on the acquisition of the Procter Gamble coffee brand. The company will keep an undetermined number of Folgers jobs in Cincinnati, some of them in product development said Smucker spokeswoman Maribeth Badertscher.

Other work, including marketing, bank failure this year. Freedom's branches will reopen Monday as Fifth Third offices. The FDIC still holds almost all of Freedom Bank's loan portfolio for later disposition; the bank had $287 million in assets. Fifth Third already has 16 branches in the Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice metropolitan area. The transaction gives Fifth Third about $675 million in deposits in the metropolitan area and raises the bank's local deposit market share to fourth from eighth, according to recent FDIC data.

as part of its bank capital purchase program an Fifth Third Bancorp announced it would assume $250 million worth of deposits and $36 million in assets from Freedom Bank in Florida, which regulators declared insolvent on Friday. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took Bradenton-based Freedom into receivership and tapped Fifth Third to take over its deposits and operation of its four branches. Freedom Bank is the 17th FDIC-insured nounced earlier In October. Mod.

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