OREANDA-NEWS. The regulatory orders against First National of Nebraska, Inc. (FNNI) and its primary operating subsidiary First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO) does not have any immediate impact to their current ratings and outlook, according to Fitch Ratings.

On Aug. 25, 2016, regulators announced that FNNI will pay $7.5 million in civil money penalties and $27.75 million in restitution. Over the past few years, federal regulators, specifically the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), determined some of the bank's products unfairly or deceptively enrolled and charged customers for products they did not receive. Fitch notes that many of the practices and products ceased in 2012.

Over recent periods, FNNI had been accruing funds to cover the anticipated fines. Therefore, Fitch does not expect FNNI's financial performance or condition to be significantly impacted on a go-forward basis.

Fitch affirmed FNNI's ratings in January 2016, reflecting the company's continued stable operating performance, additional improvement in asset quality ratios, as well as the maintenance of reasonable regulatory capital ratios.

At the same time, Fitch revised the Rating Outlook to Positive reflecting the view that FNNI's operating performance could strengthen further over the near to medium term and potentially warrant a higher rating. This view was based on Fitch's expectation that performance should improve as FNNI builds out additional strategic partnerships in its credit card portfolio. Moreover, the revision reflected Fitch expectation that FNNI's overall credit quality will remain solid going forward as much of its more volatile business lines have been reduced significantly since the crisis such as national credit card lending along with construction and land development lending.