Qualifying Supervisory Goodwill

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on qualifying supervisory goodwill in the thrift industry, defined as goodwill resulting from the acquisition of problem thrifts. GAO noted that: (1) as of December 1991, 248 of the 2,096 thrifts in the industry held a total of about $3.9 billion in qualifying supervisory goodwill and $412.4 billion of assets; (2) 13 percent of those 248 thrifts meet the core capital requirements with the inclusion of goodwill in their core capital; (3) 12.5 percent of those 248 thrifts do not meet core capital requirements even with the inclusion of supervisory goodwill; (4) it is more appropriate to consider an individual thrift's condition than to rely on historical resolution costs to determine estimated resolution costs for thrifts holding goodwill; and (5) 18 percent to 40 percent of the thrifts transferred quarterly to the Resolution Trust Corporation during 1991 held goodwill.