It was a wonderful life: it would take more than a guardian angel to bring back the good old days of the thrift industry.

• Position: Special Report: Banking

IT WAS A WONDERFUL LIFE

It would take more than a guardian angel to bring back the good old days of the thrift industry.

College presidents have the lines down pat: Study hard, stick to your books, and you'll do well. But the odds aren't in your favor.

"Look to your left," they tell freshmen. "Look to your right. Chances are, one or both of those people won't be around four years from now."

You could say the same thing about the beleaguered savings-and-loan industry. Even profitable thrifts that have limited their business to home mortgages know they can't escape the fallout from the national debacle and the ever-intensifying competition from banks and credit unions.

Is more turmoil ahead?

"That's the name of the game in this industry," says Thad Woodard, president of the North Carolina League of Savings Institutions, a Raleigh-based trade association.

In hard numbers, not much has changed in the past eight months. At the end of 1989, there were 130 thrifts in the state, and in mid-August, there were 129. Five years ago, North Carolina had about 140 thrifts.

But the total includes three taken over by the Office of Thrift Supervision to be sold or liquidated, eight that are being sold to big banks and at least one that hopes to merge with a community bank.

That would mean a nearly 10 percent decrease. Some analysts wouldn't be surprised if the number of thrifts nationally, now about 3,200, is cut in half within 10 years.

Then again, who knows what might happen if Congress re-examines what some believe is the real culprit in the thrift collapse: the level of federal deposit insurance.

Pressure is building to lower the government's $100,000 insurance ceiling. If that happens, some analysts figure little thrifts will suffer most.

"If you take away from the small thrift the deposit insurance as it now exists, then the mentality of the public will be, 'I'll just put my money in some institution that's too big to fail,'" Woodard says.

Still, North Carolina has fared better than most states. In March, Resolution Trust Corp., the government's thrift liquidator, held 60 real-estate properties here, worth $20 million. Compare that with Texas, where the government owned 19,000 parcels valued at $20 billion.

Only five North Carolina thrifts have been taken over by the government. Last year, Great Atlantic in Manteo was dismantled. Cardinal Savings, once an arm of Conner Corp., the defunct mobile-home maker, was closed a couple of years back.

This year, regulators have seized Charlotte-based North Carolina Federal (since renamed North Carolina Savings Association), Heritage Federal in Monroe and Guaranty Federal in Fayetteville. One or two others might fall into government hands. Preferred Savings in High Point is desperately seeking capital. Raleigh-based First-corp is trying to spin off its foreclosed real estate into a separate company. Southeastern Savings in Charlotte has found a sugar daddy -- an investor group has put up $26 million in return for a controlling interest.

With some exceptions, the state's largest thrifts face the biggest problems. They rushed into real estate and are now paying the price. They are in highly competitive metro markets such as Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh.

One conclusion: the most-likely survivors are small-town thrifts with strong community ties.

To see what's ahead, BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA visited four thrifts. Will they be around in four years? Who knows, but bet on one thing: Those that do survive will be different.

Pioneer Savings circles its wagons

All Theo Pitt wants is time. Time for the real-estate market in Raleigh to turn around. Time for his savings and loan to sell some foreclosed properties. Time to convince depositors and shareholders that Pioneer Savings Bank is not on its way to becoming another thrift-industry basket case.

Pitt, 53, is chairman and CEO of Rocky Mount-based Pioneer, the sixth-largest thrift in North Carolina. Home Savings and Loan, as it was called, opened in 1912. It remained a mutual until 1984 and changed its name to Pioneer in 1986. Two years ago, it formed a holding company, Pioneer Bancorp.

Pitt, CEO since 1974, runs an institution with $580 million in assets and 25 offices throughout Eastern North Carolina. Pioneer is well-known in such...