NATION : Senators Urged OK of S&L; Sale

WASHINGTON —  Sens. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) and Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.) contacted the top federal thrift regulator in support of Charles H. Keating Jr.’s efforts to sell his troubled savings and loan shortly before it was seized by the government, the official said today.

M. Danny Wall, former chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, told the Senate Ethics Committee that Cranston called him several times and met with him just one week before Keating’s Lincoln Savings & Loan collapsed April 14, 1989. Testifying in the case of the “Keating Five” senators, Wall said both Cranston and DeConcini urged prompt action on Keating’s application to sell the thrift and that Cranston urged approval of the sale.

Regulators rejected the sale on grounds the proposed buyers were actually associates of Keating and that Lincoln would not be made economically viable.