ADM Wins Approval to Run an S & L

Regulators on Monday gave agribusiness giant Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. permission to convert a state-chartered bank it operates into a federally chartered savings and loan.

The Office of Thrift Supervision said it approved the Decatur, Ill.-based agribusiness conglomerate’s application to operate Hickory Point Bank & Trust on condition that no ADM employees or affiliates implicated in 1996 price-fixing charges be involved in the S&L;’s operation.

Approval of that application appears tenuous, however, as the House of Representatives is expected to vote next week on legislation that attempts to end certain loopholes that have enabled commercial companies to get into the banking business by acquiring or forming federally chartered thrifts. The bill would ban the approval of such new thrift charter applications submitted after Sept. 16, 1997. ADM submitted its application on Sept. 18.

As a federally chartered S&L;, Hickory Point would be able to provide fuller banking and trust services. The state-chartered bank, with capital of about $110 million, has concentrated on residential mortgages and consumer lending in the Forsyth, Ill., area.

In approving the request, the OTS said it took into account the agreements ADM and its affiliates made with the Justice and Agriculture departments and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to settle price-fixing charges.

In 1996, ADM pleaded guilty to two counts of fixing prices of citric acid and lysine, a feed additive, and agreed to pay $100 million in fines to the Justice Department. Other cases involving price-fixing are still pending against current and former executives of the company.