In Brief: FDIC Awards $34M in Oregon Goodwill Suit

Investors and managers of the former Far West Federal Bank, Portland, Ore., have closed the final chapter of an eight-year legal battle against the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The agency said Friday that it awarded a combined $33.8 million to more than 50 plaintiffs in the case.

The payout, agreed to Sept. 19, will compensate investors and managers for the government's decision to wipe out supervisory goodwill that had been counted as capital. A federal appeals court ordered the agency in July to make recompense.

The thrift was shut by regulators in 1991, two years after Congress banned thrifts from counting goodwill, an intangible asset, as capital.

The Far West case is the second goodwill suit in which the government has awarded money to plaintiffs. In 1994 the FDIC awarded $6.6 million to the failed Security Federal Savings and Loan Association.

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