1.   Among asset management firms, however, thrift charters are relatively rare.

2.   Banks generally favor elimination of the thrift charter, which has given securities and insurance firms an entry into their trade.

3.   --Abolish the federal thrift charter and begin to treat state-chartered thrifts as banks.

4.   --Abolish the federal thrift charter.

5.   Commercial firms are now turning to the federal thrift charter as a way to gain greater access to U.S. banking markets.

6.   Currently, insurance firms can purchase thrift charters, but thrifts provide only limited banking services.

7.   Equitable Companies Inc. and American International Group, Inc. filed applications with the regulator last week for a thrift charter.

8.   Greenspan, though, expressed concerns about the proposal to eliminate thrift charters, which would ultimately result in creation of new bank holding companies.

9.   In addition to the concerns by the insurance industry, thrifts are upset by a provision in the House Banking Committee-approved measure that would eliminate thrift charters.

10.   It would also permit a limited mixing of banks and non-financial firms, such as auto dealership and equipment manufacturers, and eliminate thrift charters.