Memorandum of
Disapproval of the Bill for the Relief of the Merchants National Bank of
I
am withholding my approval of S. 593, a bill for the relief of the Merchants
National Bank of
The
compensation would be for losses the Bank claims were caused by the issuance
and cancellation of a loan guarantee and the subsequent reissuance
on different terms of a second loan guarantee. The need to renegotiate the
terms of the loan guarantee originally extended to the Merchants National Bank
of
While
the terms of the two guarantees were different, the second loan contained some
provisions that were more advantageous to the Bank than those that were
included in the first guarantee, and the Bank's losses did not result from the
need to cancel the first guarantee and the issuance of a second guarantee.
Under the circumstances that existed at the time the second guarantee was
negotiated, this guarantee was not less advantageous to the Bank than the
first, unauthorized guarantee.
I
must, therefore, withhold my approval of S. 593 in order to prevent payment to
the Bank of an unsupportable gratuity.
Ronald
Reagan
The
White House,
Note:
The memorandum was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on October 25.