Thrift Supervision

T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. won approval yesterday to operate a federal savings and loan that will allow it to offer certificates of deposit nationwide.The new T. Rowe Price Savings Bank, based in Baltimore, will not make loans or sell mutual funds, according to the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Treasury Department agency that regulates federal savings and loans."We just want to round out the range of investment services and savings opportunities for individual investors," said Steven E. Norwitz, a spokesman for the Baltimore mutual fund company.

In what company officials termed a defensive move, Legg Mason Inc. has filed an application with a federal regulator to operate a savings and loan.The Baltimore-based brokerage and money management firm XTC filed papers with the Office of Thrift Supervision in Washington to charter Legg Mason Trust Bank FSB.Raymond A. "Chip" Mason, Legg's chairman and chief executive, said the company has no immediate plans to start the savings and loan even if it gets...

Are the officers and directors of America's mutual savings and loans greedily enriching themselves at the expense of their depositors?That's the assumption behind heightened regulatory interest in the conversion of mutual thrifts to stock institutions. Mutual thrifts technically are owned by their depositors, while stock companies are owned by the shareholders.At the end of January the Treasury Department and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) declared a moratorium on mutual thrifts trying both to convert to stock-owned and to merge.

Although continued profit-taking kept the Dow Jones industrial average down by double digits most of yesterday, the blue-chip indicator recovered near the final bell. The Dow indicator slipped only 1.68 points to finish the busy session at 3,848.63, still up 94 points in 1994 after last year's 453 point, or 13.7 percent, advance.BALTIMORE BEAT: Alex. Brown says, "Nordstrom: Buy. Our investment thesis remains focused on projected strong year-over-year gains in quarterly earnings per share (estimated to rise, on average, 14 percent over the next four quarters)

WASHINGTON -- When Chairman Henry Gonzalez of the House Banking Committee was tenaciously pursuing the savings-and-loan and BCCI bank scandals, among his most steadfast supporters was the ranking Republican on the committee, Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa. But that close working relationship has been severely jeopardized by Leach's insistence on pressing for hearings on the Whitewater case now plaguing Bill and Hillary Clinton.Leach wants to call 40 specific Whitewater witnesses to a semiannual Banking Committee oversight review of the savings-and-loan cleanup by the Resolution Trust Corp.

Business failures up in Md.Maryland was one of only five states where the number of business failures rose during the first half of the year, said a survey released yesterday, as economic growth in major industries pushed failures down 20 percent nationwide.A total of 36,790 U.S. businesses failed during the period, compared with 45,906 during the first half of 1993, Dun & Bradstreet reported.The only states with a rise in failures were Arkansas, 45 percent; Montana, 30 percent; Oregon, 25 percent; Maryland, 8 percent; and Washington state, 3 percent.

As the quality of the nation's thrifts improved in the second quarter of this year, those in Maryland deteriorated slightly, according to IDC Financial Publishing Inc.Maryland's thrifts scored 117 out of a possible 300 in the quarter that ended June 30, down from 123 on Dec. 31, 1991. The U.S. average in the same period was 165, up from 150 at the end of last year.But officials at several low-rated Maryland thrifts say they have experienced recent changes that were big enough to boost their ratings.

Federal banking regulators seized Second National Federa Savings Bank yesterday as the Eastern Shore's largest thrift succumbed to high levels of failed real estate loans brought on by imprudent and risky lending.Citing Second National's depleted financial condition, the federal Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) placed the 20-year-old company in receivership.All $1.16 billion in deposits, even those exceeding $100,000 per account, will be guaranteed by federal insurance, according to the Resolution Trust Corp.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Columbia Savings & Loan, which once boasted of being the best-run U.S. savings and loan, was seized by government regulators Friday, ending a dizzying 18-month collapse of the maverick thrift that ultimately could cost taxpayers more than $1.5 billion.The seizure of the thrift, which collapsed largely because of massive losses on its "junk" bonds, ends another chapter in the spectacular demise of financier Michael Milken's once-powerful junk-bond machine, of which Columbia was a critical component.

Top administration officials asked bank and thrift examiners yesterday to extend the benefit of the doubt and use common sense when working with the financial institutions that are essential for fueling an economic recovery.While gently chiding their audience for contributing to the "credit crunch," Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady and others stopped short of placing full blame on the nearly 500 examiners for the tight lending that is said to be contributing to the economy's sputtering.

Federal regulators seized Bradford Bank of Towson late Friday after the financial institution failed to find a buyer, making it the second bank in Maryland to fall victim to bad loans amid the collapse of the real estate market. M&T Bank, which recently acquired Baltimore's Provident Bank and is one of Maryland's largest lending institutions, will assume all of Bradford's deposits and most of its assets in a purchase agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. That means Bradford's nine branches, mostly in Baltimore County, will reopen today as M&T offices and business will go on as usual.

Dutch insurer Aegon NV is exploring a bid to buy the troubled Suburban Federal Savings Bank in Crofton as a way of becoming eligible for money from the federal bank bailout plan. The insurance giant, with North American headquarters in Baltimore, was among four insurance companies that applied Friday to the federal Office of Thrift Supervision to become owners of a savings institution as a way to get funding from the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program. OTS officials confirmed Aegon's interest in Suburban.

Baltimore County Savings Bank's parent company said yesterday that it has been taken off federal regulatory supervision of its operations, a major step forward as it works to stabilize its long-term finances after a costly check-kiting scheme. BCSB Bankcorp Inc. said late yesterday that the Office of Thrift Supervision has terminated special oversight that had been in place since December 2005. The federal agency took action after finding flawed internal controls. In particular, it said the bank needed to improve its processes for identifying customers at high risk of unlawful activity.

REMEMBER REDLINING, circa 1970? We may soon see a modern-day version of the old practice when banks drew invisible but detrimental geographical boundaries around poor urban and rural areas and refused to do business with them. Recent moves by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and other banking regulatory agencies to water down a nearly 30-year-old law designed to ensure that banks provide lending, investment and basic banking services to poor communities are prompting fears of a return to the old days.

WASHINGTON - Senate Banking Committee Chairman Paul S. Sarbanes is asking for federal investigations into the failure of Superior Bank FSB, a suburban Chicago thrift that was half-owned by the multibillionaire Pritzker family. Sarbanes, a Maryland Democrat, requested the probes in letters dated Wednesday to the General Accounting Office, the government's main investigative arm, and the inspectors general of the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. He said investigators also should explore "whether and how the regulatory early warning system is working."

T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. won approval yesterday to operate a federal savings and loan that will allow it to offer certificates of deposit nationwide.The new T. Rowe Price Savings Bank, based in Baltimore, will not make loans or sell mutual funds, according to the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Treasury Department agency that regulates federal savings and loans."We just want to round out the range of investment services and savings opportunities for individual investors," said Steven E. Norwitz, a spokesman for the Baltimore mutual fund company.

In what company officials termed a defensive move, Legg Mason Inc. has filed an application with a federal regulator to operate a savings and loan.The Baltimore-based brokerage and money management firm XTC filed papers with the Office of Thrift Supervision in Washington to charter Legg Mason Trust Bank FSB.Raymond A. "Chip" Mason, Legg's chairman and chief executive, said the company has no immediate plans to start the savings and loan even if it gets...

Business failures up in Md.Maryland was one of only five states where the number of business failures rose during the first half of the year, said a survey released yesterday, as economic growth in major industries pushed failures down 20 percent nationwide.A total of 36,790 U.S. businesses failed during the period, compared with 45,906 during the first half of 1993, Dun & Bradstreet reported.The only states with a rise in failures were Arkansas, 45 percent; Montana, 30 percent; Oregon, 25 percent; Maryland, 8 percent; and Washington state, 3 percent.

WASHINGTON -- When Chairman Henry Gonzalez of the House Banking Committee was tenaciously pursuing the savings-and-loan and BCCI bank scandals, among his most steadfast supporters was the ranking Republican on the committee, Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa. But that close working relationship has been severely jeopardized by Leach's insistence on pressing for hearings on the Whitewater case now plaguing Bill and Hillary Clinton.Leach wants to call 40 specific Whitewater witnesses to a semiannual Banking Committee oversight review of the savings-and-loan cleanup by the Resolution Trust Corp.

Are the officers and directors of America's mutual savings and loans greedily enriching themselves at the expense of their depositors?That's the assumption behind heightened regulatory interest in the conversion of mutual thrifts to stock institutions. Mutual thrifts technically are owned by their depositors, while stock companies are owned by the shareholders.At the end of January the Treasury Department and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) declared a moratorium on mutual thrifts trying both to convert to stock-owned and to merge.