Bank of New England Set to Name New Chief

Former Columbia Savings & Loan President Lawrence K. Fish is expected to be named as chairman and chief executive of troubled Bank of New England.

Fish, 45, would fill the job formerly held by Walter J. Connolly Jr., who was ousted by the Boston bank’s directors in December amid huge losses caused mainly by the plunge in New England’s real estate market. Last week, the bank reported a $1.1-billion loss for 1989.

The bank would not comment, and Fish could not be reached.

Fish is familiar with New England banking, having spent most of his career at rival Bank of Boston. The job he is expected to get had been filled temporarily by Ridgely Bullock, a Bank of New England director.

Fish is used to rocky situations. Until September, he was the second-ranking executive at Columbia, one of the nation’s most controversial savings and loans. Former Chief Executive Thomas Spiegel, whose family controls Columbia, built the thrift into the largest holder of high-risk, high-yield junk bonds in the savings and loan business through a close relationship to investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert and its former junk bond chief Michael Milken.

Those junk bonds made Columbia one of the most profitable thrifts in the nation through much of the 1980s, but lately have caused Columbia huge losses that have led many industry executives to wonder if it can survive.

Fish was hired by Columbia in 1988 to give the thrift an experienced banking officer. He stayed just 18 months. One reason given at the time for his leaving was that, in reorganizing Columbia, he effectively eliminated his own job. Other industry executives speculated that Fish may have found it difficult working for a family-controlled firm and that he also may have tired of Columbia’s growing problems.