BANKING & FINANCE - Sept. 21, 1995

Senate Panel OKs Thrift Funds Plan: The Banking Committee approved a plan to merge the deposit insurance funds of the thrift and banking industries and pledged to find a way to convert thrifts to commercial banks. The Savings Assn. Insurance Fund faces a multitude of problems following the massive S&L; failures of the 1980s and could become insolvent if a few major thrifts failed. The S&L; industry is much healthier now than in the last decade. But thrifts face large payments on debts left over from the crush of failures, which resulted in a shortfall in the fund. The committee’s action on the thrift fund, part of a budget bill that would save $2.5 billion over the next seven years, takes a narrower approach than a bill passed by a House panel.