Director of FarWest S&L; Investments Steps Down : Thrifts: Fred Kayne quit his executive jobs with the savings and loan and its parent firm but will be a part-time adviser.

The executive who directed the investment strategy of FarWest Savings & Loan Assn., including the thrift’s junk-bond holdings, has resigned from the thrift and its parent holding company.

Fred Kayne, 52, said Wednesday that he has stepped down as president and chief executive officer of FarWest Financial Corp. but that he will remain a part-time adviser to the Beverly Hills-based company, which is controlled by the wealthy Belzberg brothers of Canada.

Kayne also gives up the post of vice chairman of FarWest Savings, the troubled Newport Beach-based thrift that recently had its operations restricted by federal regulators. The S&L; is under pressure to reduce its $395-million portfolio of high-yield, high-risk bonds.

Kayne submitted his resignation last month, he said, and it became effective Friday.

Kayne, a former managing partner of the Los Angeles office of the Bear, Stearns & Co. investment brokerage and a longtime adviser to FarWest Chairman William Belzberg, was recruited to help direct FarWest Savings’ involvement in the securities market. Kayne joined FarWest Financial in February, 1988, replacing Belzberg as president and chief executive.

But Kayne’s value to the company was diminished with the passage last year of federal regulations curtailing most securities investing by S&Ls.; A federal law passed last year requires thrifts to sell off their junk bonds by mid-1994.

Kayne said in a brief interview Wednesday that he decided to resign last year when the new S&L; rules took effect. At that time, he agreed to stay for one year to help redirect FarWest’s investment strategy.

“I decided this was going to be a different kind of business and that I wanted out,” he said.

Kayne declined to discuss the S&L;, saying that his resignation is “my time in the sun” and not an appropriate time to talk about the thrift. He said there was no internal or external pressure on him to resign.

Charles Green, FarWest Savings president and chief executive, said there has been no decision about whether to replace Kayne.

Several industry analysts agreed that FarWest now has little need for Kayne’s talents and said what is needed is a hefty infusion of cash into the S&L--the; holding company’s main asset--by FarWest Financial’s majority owners--Samuel, Hyman and William Belzberg.

With the new thrift rules, FarWest S&L;’s financial position has weakened. It has continued making a profit on operations, but new accounting rules have required massive writedowns of some assets, resulting in losses of $46.1 million for 1989 and of $29.5 million for the first half of 1990.

The thrift also does not meet government minimum capital requirements. Last month, federal regulators rejected its plan to raise capital and also imposed operating restrictions, among them that all new loans be approved first by regulators.