
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 8, 1990                   TAG: 9003081520
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: C-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

WITHDRAWALS FROM THRIFTS HIT NEW HIGH

Withdrawals from savings institutions accelerated in December, bringing outflows for all of 1989 to a record $73.6 billion, the government said Wednesday.

The industry lost $8.6 billion in deposits, excluding interest credited, in December, the Office of Thrift Supervision said. That was the biggest one-month drain since an $8.8 billion outflow in September and the 18th in 19 months. Withdrawals totaled $4.8 billion in November and $6.3 billion in October.

Outflows for the full year were the largest on record. The last big outflow, $25.4 billion, occurred in 1981, when interest rates for competing money-market mutual funds skyrocketed above 20 percent at a time when thrift rates were capped by law.

Total deposits, with interest credited, declined $16 billion in 1989 to $946 billion.

S&L assets at the end of the year totaled $1.25 trillion, down $100 billion or 7.3 percent, from a year earlier. In contrast, commercial bank assets grew 5.4 percent to $3.3 trillion.

by CNB