Peoples Westchester, which Mr. Olson described as "the largest independent thrift between New York City and Albany," has 32 offices and is based in Hawthorne.

Dozens of the largest thrifts in America wouldn't budge without first seeking Ranieri's advice.

Since that time, Golden West grew into one of the largest thrifts in the U.S. with assets of approximately $125 billion, deposits of $60 billion, and 12,000 employees.

This says the Government is going to follow through on the legislation passed to do something about these large, troubled thrifts.

However, this is misleading, since prudent lenders, including at least 12 of the 15 largest thrifts in the New York metropolitan area, still require appraisals for most new mortgages and equity loans.

Union Federal Bank of Indianapolis, its wholly owned subsidiary, grew to become the largest Indiana-based thrift with $3.5 billion in assets.

In 1998, Perelman negotiated a stock swap with Golden State Bancorp to create the third largest thrift in the country with $50 billion of assets.

The bank earned second place in a ranking of the best performing large thrifts by SNL Financial, a data aggregator for the banking and financial sector.

"Obviously we are pleased that our largest single thrift will be successfully resolved through acquisition," Mr. Wall said.

Early the next year, Coniston quietly began accumulating 6.5 percent of the shares of Sooner Federal Savings & Loan, the largest thrift in Oklahoma.