WASHINGTON — Sen. Daniel K. Inouye did not buy or sell any stock in a Hawai'i bank during 2008 when one of his staffers made a call to federal regulators on the bank's behalf to ensure some important paperwork had been received, according to federal financial records.

The call was to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. about an application Central Pacific Bank had submitted for some of the $700 billion in banking bailout money Congress approved last year.

Central Pacific eventually got $135 million in bailout money through the Treasury Department.

The issue of Inouye's link to the bank — in which he owns stock — arose in July from a story done by the watchdog group ProPublica and the Washington Post.

At the time, Inouye owned between $100,000 and $250,000 in Central Pacific stock, according to financial records released this week by the Senate.

His only reported income from the bank in 2008 was between $5,000 and $15,000 in dividends. There was no reported purchase or sale of Central Pacific stock.

Dave Levinthal, spokes- man with the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan Washington watchdog organization, followed the story when it first appeared.

"There's no indication that there's anything illegal or unethical here," Levinthal said at the time.

In a statement issued in July, Inouye, chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, said the call by his staffer amounted to simple constituent services.

The statement makes clear that Inouye himself never made any calls on behalf of the bank, and no one is alleging he did.

In 2008, Inouye reported between $1.2 million and $2.8 million in publicly traded assets and unearned income.