BANKING

ITT Realigns Management: ITT Federal Bank had been searching for a president for the past two months but has now decided instead to realign its command and change its operation.

Scott Allen was hired as executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Irvine thrift. On Monday, Allen, 43, started to direct the thrift’s $2 billion in loans and other assets toward conventional residential mortgage lending and mortgage banking operations. The savings and loan had focused previously on large construction and mortgage loans for apartment buildings and other income-producing properties.

Allen will be the top officer at the S&L;’s three-branch headquarters in Orange County. Previously, he was a Coast Federal Bank executive.

Graham Williams, the S&L;’s chairman, had been acting president and chief executive. He now will assume those duties permanently while he continues as president of the bank’s sister company, ITT Residential Capital Corp. in San Francisco. Both the thrift and the company are subsidiaries of ITT Corp. in New York.