Treasury Aide Named to Run Thrift Agency

President Bush today named Salvadore R. Martoche, an assistant Treasury secretary, as acting director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, the agency that oversees the nation’s savings and loan institutions.

Martoche fills a vacancy created by the resignation under pressure of M. Danny Wall.

Martoche, a former U.S. attorney from Buffalo, was named by Bush to serve “until a new director is in place.” Because it is only an interim appointment, the action does not require Senate confirmation.

Martoche takes over the reins of the agency overseeing the restructuring of the troubled S&L; industry and will preside over a growing number of lawsuits against savings industry executives accused of illegal lending practices.

Wall, who had been criticized in Congress as understating the magnitude of the S&L; crisis and being slow to act in the case of Irvine-based Lincoln Savings and Loan, announced in December that he would resign as soon as the Administration found a replacement.

However, as criticism grew on his handling of Lincoln, which had been run by Charles H. Keating Jr., Wall indicated that he would step aside even before a replacement was named.

Martoche is assistant secretary of the Treasury for enforcement, overseeing the Secret Service as well as the Customs Service and the agency’s drug-intervention programs.

The Office of Thrift Supervision, formerly known as the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, was extensively overhauled last year as part of the $150-billion S&L; rescue legislation.

The measure placed the agency under the control of the Treasury Department and removed many of its previous powers. Under the legislation, the government is charged with selling or closing hundreds of insolvent S&L; associations.

Wall resigned as the nation’s chief S&L; regulator, complaining to Bush in a letter that he was being made a scapegoat for the problems of the entire industry.

At the time, Wall denounced a “steady stream of one-sided information” from congressional hearings on the collapse of Lincoln.