BANKING/FINANCE

More Join Consortium: Orange County banks and savings and loans continue to join the Savings Assns. Mortgage Co. in Santa Clara to help them fulfill federal requirements to provide financing for low-income housing.

Union Federal Savings Bank, the subsidiary of UnionFed Financial Corp. in Brea, became the 12th county thrift to join the association, and National Bank of Southern California became only the second county bank to join the consortium of lenders.

The association now has 98 members statewide who pay a onetime membership fee of $1,000 each to have the consortium handle the administrative end of home loans. The institutions then get credit from regulators toward their Community Reinvestment Act obligations for any projects they agree to help pay for.

The association, which started making loans in 1971 to low- and middle-income home buyers, decided to admit banks to its ranks last year.