FIFTH THIRD'S CROWN PRINCE RESIGNS

Fifth Third Bancorp of Cincinnati, Ohio, has lost another top executive.  Following the "resignation" of Chief Financial Officer Mark Graf last month, Executive Vice President Neal Arnold has left the bank.  Fifth Third quietly announced Arnold's resignation on Monday in a routine regulatory filing.  No explanation has been offered for his departure, which has raised eyebrows because Arnold was thought to be embattled CEO George Schaeffer's likely successor.

Well, as regular readers here know, the big bank from Cincinnati has problems, which the Local Area Watch has been documenting for a number of years now.  For those who want to catch up on the story of Fifth Third and its decline over the past few years, here are links to key articles we have run about the bank:

FIFTH THIRD CFO TAKES THE FALL - Why Fifth Third's new CFO isn't responsible for Schaeffer's mismanagement of the bank.

A BANK JOB, INDEED - The chain of events that followed from our report to the feds on the shenanigans involved in Fifth Third's acquisition of Old Kent.

DID FIFTH THIRD ABET ILLEGAL DUMPING SCHEME? - How Fifth Third/Old Kent cooperated with its development company to facilitate the illegal removal of contaminated soil from an urban brownfield.

THE FIXER, PART IV (PYRAMID DUST) - The background on how Old Kent got sold out to Fifth Third on the cheap.

All of our stories on Fifth Third can be found under the category "Banks".  If you have any news for us regarding Fifth Third, feel free to post comments to the relevant article or e-mail us at info@localareawatch.org.  Thanks.