VOLCKER SEES BENEFIT IN FDIC/FSLIC MERGER
Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul
Volcker said a combination of the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corp, FDIC, and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp,
FSLIC, could be contemplated in the longer term but is not an
answer to the thrift industry's immediate problems.
    "I don't think it's an answer to 1977 or 1988," Volcker
said at a press conference.
    But a merger of the two deposit-insurance agencies could be
an option as part of a general structural reform of the U.S.
banking system.
    The aim of a merger would not be for commercial banks to
subsidize ailing savings and loan associations but to improve
official oversight of depository institutions, Volcker said.
    "The attractive element is that you get almost by
definition a consistency of supervision and regulation that you
don't have now," he explained.
 Reuter
