Bailout Agency Plans to Speed Up Sale of S&Ls; : Thrifts: Resolution Trust Corp. will try to sell weak S&Ls; before they become insolvent.

Savings and loan bailout officials approved a policy Tuesday that they hope will save taxpayers’ money by selling insolvent thrifts before the institutions lose value during months of government control.

In a major strategy shift, the board of Resolution Trust Corp., created last summer to clean up the S&L; industry, voted 4-0 to adopt a program to find buyers for weak thrifts before, rather than after, they fail.

Previously, failed S&Ls; were declared insolvent by the Office of Thrift Supervision, an arm of the Treasury Department, and turned over to the RTC. Later--sometimes more than a year later--the trust corporation provided government assistance to new investors to acquire the thrift.

RTC Chairman L. William Seidman contends that simply declaring an institution failed reduces its value because depositors withdraw money and key employees find other jobs.

The agency hopes that it will be able to spend fewer taxpayer dollars by finding a buyer before an institution is stigmatized as failed.

The method will be similar to how the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. handles failed commercial banks, but it marks a major strategy shift.

Since February, 1989, regulators have tried to manage the thrift crisis by putting failed institutions under direct government control, even if they could not be sold or closed immediately.

Rather than publicly advertising for bids, the agency will solicit proposals from a list of about 3,500 investors who have expressed an interest in acquiring failed institutions.

When a buyer is selected, the institution will be closed and immediately reopened, relieving the new owners of legal claims against the old institution.

The old shareholders will lose their investment. The old managers will keep or lose their jobs depending on whether they played a part in causing the institution to fail.

Generally, if no buyer is found within 90 days, the institution will be seized by the government.