BANKING

Court Rules in Spiegel Matter: A federal appeals court reversed a lower court ruling that had prevented federal thrift regulators from requiring former Columbia Savings & Loan Chief Executive Thomas Spiegel to put $21 million into an escrow account. This action is related to civil actions they are bringing against him. The case now returns to U.S. District Judge Steven V. Wilson in Los Angeles--who previously ruled that Spiegel did not have to put up the amount--for a hearing to decide how much he should put into escrow. The Office of Thrift Supervision has accused Spiegel of squandering Columbia’s money on such things as personal travel, vacations at Columbia-owned condominiums and a large gun collection. Columbia failed earlier this year at a cost to taxpayers of $1.2 billion.