BankAmerica Seeks to Open Thrifts in All 50 States : Finance: Banking company wants to make the expansion before Congress can make any changes in the rules for S&Ls;.

Hoping to map out the first truly nationwide branch network before Congress changes the rules, BankAmerica Corp. is asking federal regulators for permission to open savings and loan offices in every state where it doesn’t already have a presence.

San Francisco-based BankAmerica, the nation’s second-largest banking company, has filed applications with the Office of Thrift Supervision to open a total of 285 branches of its thrift subsidiary--Bank of America, FSB--in all 50 states.

About 175 of the new branches would be in Jewel-Osco supermarkets in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. That would extend BankAmerica’s previously announced relationship with the grocery chain, under which the bank has already located automated teller machines in many of the stores.

Most of the other new branches would piggyback on existing offices of the thrift’s mortgage lending, mobile-home lending and community banking businesses. But in the 17 states where the thrift does not yet have a location, it would open new free-standing branches, BankAmerica spokesman Peter Magnani said.

Interstate banking is currently a patchwork affair, with firms such as BankAmerica, Los Angeles-based First Interstate Bancorp, Banc One Corp. of Ohio and Norwest Corp. of Minneapolis establishing multi-state networks either through mergers made legal under regional banking pacts worked out among contiguous states or through federally approved takeovers of troubled thrifts.

BankAmerica itself was in merger talks over the summer with Charlotte, N.C.-based NationsBank Corp.--No. 4 in size nationally--sources have told The Times. The discussions came to nothing, but such a marriage would have created a $400-billion behemoth nearly twice the size of Citicorp, the current No. 1, and even bigger than the combined Chemical Banking Corp. and Chase Manhattan Corp. will be when their pending merger is completed.

But full interstate branching for commercial banks does not take effect until next July.

That, according to analysts, is partly why BankAmerica is building the network through its thrift subsidiary rather than through its flagship commercial bank. Thrifts currently have greater legal powers and are subject to lighter regulatory control in interstate branching.

However, Congress is considering altering the laws governing the savings and loan industry and perhaps doing away with thrift charters altogether. It is unclear what form the legislation will finally take--if indeed it is enacted--but some observers believe that thrifts could be stripped of their legal advantages.

Before that happens, “we want to ensure that [the thrift unit] has potential for full branching in all states,” Magnani said.

BankAmerica has not settled on a timetable for opening the new offices, nor has it decided what products or services it will offer through them, Magnani said, adding, “We just want to keep our options open.”

OTS has asked BankAmerica for more information about the proposed branches, said a spokesman for the thrift regulator. When the applications are deemed complete, the agency will have 60 days to rule on them, the spokesman said. If OTS takes no action, the applications will be automatically deemed approved after 60 days, he said.