BANKING

Savings and Loan Profits Surge in 1992: Savings and loan profits surged to $5.1 billion in 1992, breaking a 14-year-old record and prompting regulators to predict thrift failures would slow to a trickle this year. The profits were more than double the $1.8 billion earned in 1991, although the totals for both years did not include losses at failed S&Ls; operating under government control. Through the first nine months of 1992, losses at S&Ls; controlled by the Resolution Trust Corp. amounted to $1.7 billion. An RTC official predicted that about 30 additional S&Ls; will fail this year, compared to 737 between 1989 and 1992.