Bank Apologizes for Newsletter’s Ethnic Slurs
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — First Union National Bank on Tuesday stopped distributing copies of a newsletter that referred to Germans as “Huns” and Japanese as “Nips” in an article satirizing fears of foreign investment.
The bank also issued apologies about the article appearing in the Feb. 1 edition of the newsletter, which the bank said already had been mailed to about 600 of its customers, after it received media calls asking about the piece.
William R. Hackney III, First Union’s chief investment officer and the author of the article, referred questions to the bank’s public relations staff.
“He was trying to satirize American economic weaknesses, and he deeply regrets his choice of words,” said First Union spokesman Jeep Bryant.
In response to a request for a copy of the newsletter, Bryant said the bank was “embarrassed by its content . . . so we’ve stopped distributing it.”
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