FHLBB Report on First-Quarter Losses by Thrifts Is Due Today

The Federal Home Loan Bank Board, in an announcement due today, is likely to report that the nation’s federally insured savings institutions lost more than $3 billion during the first three months of this year.

The bank board, which regulates about 3,120 institutions, was scheduled to release the thrifts’ first-quarter losses at a news conference today. However, statistics already published by the board provide a good indication of what that figure will be, a bank board official said.

James Barth, the bank board’s chief economist, declined to disclose the loss number before its scheduled release, but he said savings institutions’ losses usually “bear a reasonably close relationship” to capital declines.

The board reported in May that the industry’s capital declined by $3.3 billion in the January-March period.