BANKING & FINANCE - June 22, 1996

Head of Office of Thrift Supervision to Leave: Jonathan Fiechter, who took over the federal agency that regulates savings and loans when the industry was starting to climb out of the hole, said his resignation will be effective Sept. 4. Fiechter, 48, who will join the World Bank as director of the financial sector development department, became acting director of the Office of Thrift Supervision at the end of 1992 but was never made director. He said he declined when he was approached to take on the director slot in the past. Fiechter joined the agency when it was formed in 1989 amid the thrift crisis in which hundreds of savings and loans went belly up. Until the Treasury Department decides on a successor, John Downey, executive director of supervision, will fill in for Fiechter.