home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
TIME: Almanac 1993
/
TIME Almanac 1993.iso
/
time
/
091790
/
0917201.000
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1992-08-28
|
1KB
|
30 lines
BUSINESS, Page 66Business NotesTHRIFTSGive Me Back My S&L
In pushing to clean up the savings and loan mess, have
federal regulators acted too hastily in declaring some thrifts
insolvent? A federal judge in Topeka thinks so in at least one
case. Last week he ordered the Office of Thrift Supervision to
return control of an S&L to its original owners on the ground
that the agency used "arbitrary and capricious" accounting
methods to justify seizing the thrift, Franklin Savings
(assets: $9.3 billion) of Ottawa, Kans.
The OTS claimed Franklin had "insufficient capital and
operated in an unsound and unsafe manner." But the owners of
the S&L argued that the OTS made serious accounting errors in
interpreting Franklin's financial statements. Federal judge
Dale Saffels ordered Franklin handed back to its owners, but
regulators won a temporary stay of that order from a Denver
federal appeals court. A victory for Franklin would undoubtedly
hearten the 25 other S&Ls with similar suits against the OTS.
And it would give new force to the contention that the agency
has at times been overzealous in taking over thrifts that
should have been left alone.