The head of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board has proposed creation of a "reinsurance" agency that would oversee the funds that insure deposits in commercial banks, savings and loans, and credit unions.

Bank Board Chairman M. Danny Wall revealed the plan this week in a speech to the National Housing Conference and said he would send a copy of the plan to President-elect George Bush.The plan, a partial solution to the woes of the insolvent Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp., also would be submitted to Congress when the new session begins Jan. 3.

Under the plan, the FSLIC, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the National Credit Union Administration would each pay premiums to the umbrella board, which in turn would insure them against losses that would threaten to bankrupt them, a bank board spokesman said.

The higher board also would supervise the three deposit insurance organizations.

A similar plan has been proposed by L. William Seidman, chairman of the FDIC, which insures deposits in commercial banks.

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Regulators, government officials and Congress are struggling to solve the crippling problems of the savings and loan industry before they swallow the healthy portion of the industry and take a huge bite out of taxpayers' pocketbooks.

The Treasury Department itself is studying the problem in an effort to come up with its own estimate of the cost of resolving the problems of the nation's 500 or so insolvent thrifts over the next 10 years.

A Treasury spokesman said the cost estimate would be completed before Christmas. He said the department then would turn its efforts toward devising a plan to rescue the foundering thrifts and prevent similar problems from developing in the future.

The bank board's latest estimate to bail out thrifts was $50 billion.

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