Charter Savings Bank Is Put Up for Sale

Charter Savings Bank in Newport Beach and three other failed California savings and loans were among 65 government-run thrifts nationwide that federal regulators put up for sale Wednesday.

Regulators hope to sell or close the institutions by the end of the year, said Kate Spears, a spokeswoman for the Resolution Trust Corp., which manages and liquidates failed thrifts.

The 65 small- to medium-size thrifts hold a total of $9.7 billion in deposits.

Regulators also expect to offer for sale a number of major thrifts--those with assets that exceed $1 billion--during the government’s fiscal quarter ending Dec. 31.

Besides Charter, regulators are peddling Brookside Savings and Southwest Savings, both in Los Angeles, and Time Savings in San Francisco.

Charter, which has $281.9 million in deposits, was declared insolvent and seized by regulators June 15, after securities losses and losses resulting from its 1988 acquisition of a troubled S&L; wiped out its capital. The FBI also is investigating bank fraud and embezzlement charges stemming from Charter’s collapse.

With the pending sale of Charter, only one failed county thrift, Lincoln Savings & Loan in Irvine, remains in such bad financial shape that the government is not offering it for sale. The only other failed county thrift still operating is Mercury Savings & Loan in Huntington Beach, which regulators hope to sell by the end of the month.

Since the agency was created 13 months ago, it has seized five county thrifts and assumed management of five other failed thrifts. Nine other of the S&Ls; that have collapsed since 1985 were either sold or closed by RTC’s predecessor agency, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board.