Business Notes FINANCE

As the insurer of deposits in thrift institutions, the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation copes with the highest failure rate in the industry since the Depression. But the FSLIC cannot survive many more weeks like last week, when it provided more than $1 billion to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas. The Dallas bank had made loans, which the FSLIC had guaranteed, to ailing savings institutions in the Southwest. When the lender had to set aside more collateral for the loans, the FSLIC had to come up with the shortfall.

The FSLIC now has $1.5 billion in cash, down from $4.6 billion at the end of 1985. That decline is sure to fuel congressional efforts to bolster the federal insurer's reserves. A bill that would provide the Government agency with $12.5 billion during the next two years could pass the Senate as early as this week, and the House is working on similar legislation.