In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the bank’s parent company, Blue Valley Ban Corp, said that the bank had charged $550,000 in the fourth quarter of 2004 for “potential costs of this litigation” and charged another $555,000 to income in the fourth quarter of this year.

The case was one of several filed against local financial institutions by loan originators. Two others, against National Bank of Kansas City and Principal Residential Mortgage, were settled on confidential terms.

Another case against First Horizon Home Loan Corp. is pending, as is a fifth case against NovaStar Mortgage Inc.

“The best you could say is that the financial services industry has its head in the sand when it comes to their wage and hour obligations,” said attorney George Hanson of Kansas City-based Stueve Siegel Hanson Woody, who brought all five cases.

“The worst you could say is that they deliberately violated wage and hour laws by telling their loan officers that, as commercial sales employees, they were owed no overtime.”

To reach Dan Margolies, call (816) 234-4481 or send e-mail to dmargolies@kcstar.com .