Word: thrift
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...Another bout of uneasiness hit the financial industry, this time inspired partly by the plight of Texas banks laden with bad loans in energy and real estate. Meanwhile, everyone from divorce lawyers to the FBI was busily looking for culprits in the failure of Home State Savings, the Cincinnati thrift whose sudden collapse last month touched off a minor financial panic. The scare forced Governor Richard Celeste to close Ohio's 69 privately insured thrifts in the largest U.S. bank holiday since the Depression...
Ohio's trauma probably further eroded the public's confidence in the safety of its deposits. "This problem with S and Ls is getting real widespread," said Accountant Bruce Humpherys, a thrift depositor in Pittsburg, Calif. "I'm wondering what's happening to our whole financial structure." The concern showed up dramatically in Pollster Albert Sindlinger's weekly survey of consumer sentiment. The percentage of people voicing confidence in the economy fell in one week from 50.4% to 42%, the steepest drop in the poll's 30-year history. "I wouldn't say consumers are panicked," said Sindlinger, "but they...
...depositors across the U.S. to wonder, maybe for the first time, just who insures their money. The large majority of deposit-taking institutions are federally insured--83% of S and Ls, for example. But 30 states, including Massachusetts, Texas and Illinois, permit at least some of their commercial banks, thrift institutions or credit unions to rely on private insurance funds...
...Ohio experience could start a movement to force all banks and S and Ls in the U.S. to buy federal insurance. Says one congressional staffer: "Given the weakened condition of the thrift industry, another crisis is likely to happen unless there are changes made in the current system." Rhode Island Democrat Fernand St Germain, chairman of the House Banking Committee, has asked federal regulators to advise him on whether they believe private insurance is adequate...
...federal ceilings on the interest rates they could pay depositors. Now bankers have much more freedom to pay what they wish, and competition has pushed rates up. That in turn has led the S and Ls to make riskier investments to cover the handsome payouts. In the past, thrifts generally limited their loan business to home mortgages. Now many have plunged into higher-yielding but more dangerous ventures, ranging from office-building construction to securities deals with traders like E.S.M. "It's harder to make a profit," says Robert Seaton, president of Cleveland's Cardinal Federal Savings & Loan. "Therefore institutions...