65 More S&Ls; for Sale; Three in Southland

Federal regulators Wednesday put 65 failed savings and loans up for sale in another push by the government to sell assets as part of the massive bailout of the thrift industry.

Included in the sale are three Southern California thrifts: Brookside Federal Savings & Loan and Southwest Federal Savings & Loan, both based in Los Angeles, and Charter Savings Bank, based in Newport Beach.

Resolution Trust Corp., the federal agency supervising the bailout, said it directed its field staff to start the sale process for the 65 S&Ls;, which have a total of about $9.7 billion in deposits.

The agency’s quarterly directive applies to smaller thrifts, those with $500 million or less in assets. Another announcement of larger institutions to be prepared for sale in the third quarter will be made soon, said Stephen Katsanos, a spokesman for the RTC.

The government’s fund for managing the bailout is expected to run out of cash by the end of the year. Sales of some of the 65 institutions could generate cash, although finding buyers generally takes years.

Of the S&Ls; in the latest announcement, 22 are in the Midwest, 18 are in the East, including Florida and Georgia, 17 are located in the Southwest and eight in the West.

Billions of dollars worth of assets from failed thrifts now held by the government are already up for sale.

Money from the sales is supposed to help offset some of the more than $500 billion over 30 years, including interest payments, that the government currently estimates it will cost to bail out depositors at failed savings and loans.

The institutions ran into trouble in the late 1980s as the economy slowed and real estate values fell, hurting profits and the value of thrift assets.

Many institutions were also wracked by fraud or mismanagement, regulators say.