A Good Corporate Citizen

The Springfield News-Leader reports on a bank that has chosen to take a stand for property rights:

Regional bank BB&T Corp., one of the nation's largest financial institutions, will make no loans to developers who plan to build commercial projects on land taken from private citizens by the government through the power of eminent domain, the company said on Wednesday.

"The idea that a citizen's property can be taken by the government solely for private use is extremely misguided, in fact it's just plain wrong," John Allison, the bank's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

No other large U.S. bank has a similar policy, BB&T spokesman Bob Denham said. The bank declined to estimate how much business it might lose as a result of the new policy.

Good for them! Let's hope this is the start of a trend.