In recent months, Mr. Prince has become increasingly frustrated with the seeming drumbeat of ethical and regulatory lapses at Citigroup.

The proposal came as a response to Congressional criticism of regulatory lapses involving Riggs Bank.

That suggests that regulatory lapses went beyond any possible improprieties involving Mr. Lee.

Of course, airlines don't exploit this regulatory lapse.

Officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission acknowledge that investors were burned by Metropolitan, but deny that the case represents a regulatory lapse.

Congressional investigators said the failure to make such conflicts of interest public, along with other serious regulatory lapses, discouraged local examiners from being more aggressive.

One is the enormous size and breadth of its businesses, which allows for ethical and regulatory lapses on the part of employees to slip through the cracks.

Valvano, a popular figure who led the team to the 1983 national championship, had come under fire for ethical and regulatory lapses in handling the basketball program.

Today's Senate report criticizes the comptroller's office for being indulgent of repeated regulatory lapses at Riggs, noting that a senior examiner with the agency later went to work for the bank.

One reason is that in the US, for all the regulatory lapses and policy faults, the banks are being slowly restructured and the wheels of finance are once again starting to turn.