January 2, 2007 (LPAC)--The previous reports from EIR News Service showing that Ohio-based National City Bank is a prime example of a regional U.S. bank needing protection from insolvency due to the mortgage-securities blowout, were further confirmed today.

National City, Federally chartered and the tenth-largest bank headquartered in the United States, cut its dividend in half, the first cut since the Great Depression in 1935, and announced that its loan loss provisions for 2007 as a whole would mount to over $1.3 billion, including $700 million in just the fourth quarter. These losses come from both mortgage loans, which National City continues to make through 1,400 bank branches in nine states, and mortgage-backed securities.

The bank also announced layoffs of 900 more employees, on top of 2,500 it eliminated from September through November; in all, it has laid off about 12% of its total workforce.

The bank said the dividend cut was "to overcome the near-term challenges facing the industry and our company." Those challenges include potentially closing down and damaging the economy and households throughout the Midwest states, without the Federal protection outlined in Lyndon LaRouche's Homeowners and Bank Protection Act to meet the financial collapse crisis.