BANKING/ FINANCE : Data Processing at Lincoln S&L; to Be Handled by Citicorp
Federal regulators, worried about losing more specially trained employees at the failed Lincoln Savings & Loan, have hired a computer services company to take over the Irvine thrift’s data processing centers.
The contract with Citicorp Information Resources Inc. in Stamford, Conn., is aimed at limiting employee turnover at Lincoln’s data processing centers in Irvine and Santa Ana. The centers run the S&L;’s deposit systems at 29 Southern California branches.
Since regulators seized Lincoln in April, 1989, the data processing centers have lost 14 of their 32 employees and have not replaced the departing employees, said Joan Skimmons of Citicorp Information.
The Resolution Trust Corp., the federal agency responsible for selling the assets of Lincoln and other insolvent thrifts, has been worried that more of the data processing staff will look elsewhere for jobs. That would leave the S&L; without needed support for its branch network--the only valuable asset the RTC has to offer potential buyers.
Under the two-year contract, the remaining 18 workers became employees of Citicorp Information and will continue to work for Lincoln.
Citicorp Information will give the workers full benefits and a career path regardless of what happens to Lincoln. At worst, any future layoffs would result in severence pay for the employees, Skimmons said.
“The staff has been depleted,” said Jerry Melton, the RTC’s supervising agent in Irvine. “Our concern was that as we move toward a resolution (sale of Lincoln), people here will be looking for permanent positions elsewhere. It would be difficult for some buyer coming in knowing that the people with the skills to run the operation are leaving.”
Neither side would provide the cost of the contract, which could be continued or canceled by any acquiring company. The RTC hopes to sell Lincoln or its branches in the next few months.
Citicorp Information is a subsidiary of Citicorp, the giant New York banking concern.
