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Mr. Chairman, I appreciate this opportunity to appear before your Committee to discuss the current and future condition of the thrift industry. I will specifically address the questions of whether the thrift crisis is in its final stages and what the future of the thrift industry might be. I will also share with you some concerns I have about the transition of responsibility from the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) to the Saving Association Insurance Fund (SAIF). In summary:

• The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has not changed its basic view that when all is said and done the final bill for the thrift crisis will be about $215 billion (in 1990 dollars) and that as few as 1,400 of the nearly 4,000 thrifts that existed in 1980 will survive the crisis.
  
  
• If the RTC stops accepting institutions for resolution by October 1993, as scheduled, and hands over the remaining caseload to the SAIF, that fund will not be able to handle the task without additional federal resources. This situation has been worsened by the failure of the Administration and the Congress to agree on continued funding for the RTC and the premature scaleback of RTC resolution operations before completing its task.
  
  

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