RBC Bank said to be up for sale

Royal Bank of Canada, which has nine branches and more than $375 million in South Carolina deposits, is exploring a possible sale of its US consumer bank after a decade-long, money-losing foray south of the border, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.

RBC Bank’s Chief Executive Jim Westlake declined to comment on the news reports, saying the bank doesn’t discuss rumors or speculation.

“We continue [to be] committed to our growth strategy in the U.S.,” he told the Raleigh News & Observer. “Our short-term interest is in making sure that we are getting the place working and our financial performance improves.”

Honoring Holocaust hero Sousa Mendes

An exhibit honoring one of the little-known heroes of World War II will open next week in Utah. Titled “These are my people! The story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes,” the exhibit opens April 15 at the University of Utah’s Marriott Library.  

The nationally touring exhibition recounts the actions of Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes, who went against his country’s wishes and helped 30,000 people escape the horrors of World War II, according to the Sousa Mendes Foundation.

With the fall France in June 1940, Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese counsel-general stationed in Bordeaux, France, found himself confronted tens of thousands of refugees outside the Portuguese consulate attempting to escape the horrors of the Nazi war machine.

These individuals were seeking visas to escape France, and a Portuguese visa would allow them safe passage through Spain to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, where they could gain access to other parts of the globe, according to information about the exhibit put out by the Sousa Mendes Foundation.