BANKS WOULDN'T RISK GINGRICH LOAN.

Byline: Patricia Lamiell Associated Press 

Bob Dole may have been the easiest loan officer Newt Gingrich could find.

Lending officers at some of the largest banks in the country said Thursday they would never extend credit to Newt Gingrich on the terms that he got from Dole.

The average consumer would never get a bank to take such a loan seriously and not even the wealthiest client could get away without putting up collateral, they said.

At least one big New York bank says it wouldn't risk a conflict of interest by lending to a politician. Others said politician or not, nobody would get terms as sweet as House Speaker Gingrich got.

``A $300,000 unsecured eight-year loan with no (periodic) payments wouldn't happen,'' said Mary Gooding, director of lending for the Private Bank of Massachusetts, a division within the Bank of Boston.

But Gingrich lawyer J. Randolph Evans said the loan would be secured with ``whatever collateralization that is required by a commercial institution.'' The exact collateral has yet to be determined.

Dole, the former Senate majority leader, recently took a job with a prominent Washington law firm that lobbies before Congress. If Dole were to become a registered lobbyist himself, the loan terms require Gingrich to pay him back with a loan from a commercial institution.

One banker said he thought that clause was unenforceable anyway. Even if it held up, the bankers interviewed said it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for Gingrich to replace the loan with private financing.

Most of the executives interviewed would not allow themselves or their banks to be identified. But they said several aspects of the loan would not make it past their desks.

Gingrich's annual salary of $170,500 isn't nearly enough to get him an unsecured loan that big. Gingrich's family assets are in the name of his wife, Marianne Gingrich, who opposed pledging them as collateral.

``The $300,000 without a lien on property is excessive, and this is assuming perfect credit,'' one banker said.

The banks would never make an eight-year loan for which no payments are due until maturity, even to the wealthiest borrower. Gooding said she would want to review the loan every year.

Another banker concurred and added, ``we would require payments of at least interest'' on a periodic basis.

``The only thing I can liken this to is maybe a student loan that can go on for five or six years, and then is paid back,'' the banker said. ``But then - guess what - the government guarantees that.''

The bankers differed on whether the 10 percent interest rate, or 1.5 percentage points over the prime rate, was attractive to Gingrich or to Dole.

Bob Heady, publisher of Bank Rate Monitor, said 10 percent would be appropriate for someone with an ``A or B'' credit rating who already had a relationship with the bank.

This loan, Heady said, gives Gingrich ``the equivalent of favored nation status'' unless the speaker ``earns some big bread between now and the year 2005.''