BANKING/ FINANCE

Praise for S&L; Management: Regardless of what they may think of FarWest’s owners, regulators had praise for the S&L;’s former managers.

“I’m quite impressed with what management has been trying to do,” said J. Alan Blodgett, a Resolution Trust Corp. agent now managing the institution.

“They were trying to sell their high-yield bonds and trying to downsize their assets,” he said. “We’ll continue to do that. Our objective will be to sell the S&L; as soon as we can.”

Customers, meanwhile, still have access to all their money, not just the amounts covered by the federal insurance limit of $100,000 per account, Blodgett said.

A sale of the 28-branch network--the thrift’s biggest attraction--would preserve that access, he said. But a sale of only the insured deposits would mean customers would lose any amount they have above the insured limit.

To help customers avoid losing money in a future sale, Blodgett said FarWest “would work” with customers who want to get into their time accounts early, without penalty, to break out into separate accounts any amounts over the insured limit. They probably would have to accept slightly lower interest rates, though.