THRIFTS: A Heaping Helping Hand

A problem of Texas-size proportions has prompted a rescue effort just as big. Last week the Federal Government disclosed a sweeping plan to shore up one of the weakest spots in the U.S. financial system: the increasingly insolvent Texas savings and loan industry. Hit first by the oil bust, then a real estate collapse, Texas thrifts lost an estimated $5 billion last year. The salvage scheme proposed by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board will drastically reduce the number of independent Texas thrifts, from 281 to less than 180, by forcing % weak institutions into mergers with stronger ones. Cost of the plan: more than $7 billion over several years. At least $1 billion is expected to come from private investors who want to buy a piece of the thrifts at bargain prices.