Four of Pittsburgh's largest charitable foundations, along with Dollar Bank, joined forces to save Dwelling House Savings & Loan as a federal deadline loomed yesterday for the Hill District institution to replenish its capital reserves.

The 11th-hour rescue will help Dwelling House meet requirements imposed by the federal Office of Thrift Supervision to submit a plan by June 30 that will reassure bank regulators that the minority-owned thrift is operating under safe and sound banking practices.

Cyber thieves electronically drained about $3 million from the thrift bank over a one-year period using automated clearing house transactions last year before the losses were discovered during an audit in December.

Dwelling House President John Haines declined to say exactly how much the five organizations will invest or disclose any other details of the plan until FDIC officials have had a chance to read and respond to it.

He did, however, say the donations will help Dwelling House obtain at least the minimum required 5 percent of reserve capital needed to make the financial institution adequately capitalized.

"What we can say at this point is that we are confident we have a way forward that will meet the expectations of federal regulators in terms of capitalization and recovery from a terrible criminal act."

Dwelling House has total assets of $13.4 million. However, its capital reserves have fallen to negative $500,000 due to the thefts. It needs a balance of at least $700,000 to meet the minimum 5 percent of capital reserves necessary to continue operating.

Regulators had said if the bank failed to meet its June 30 deadline it would take actions to either force Dwelling House to merge with a stronger financial institution or shut down.

The board of directors at Dwelling House said it has already collected about $1 million in reimbursements from the 62 financial institutions nationwide that had unknowingly processed the fraudulent withdrawals. That would leave about $200,000 in new financing that is needed to keep Dwelling House open.

The organizations that have committed to supplying that money are Dollar Bank, which has been mentoring the smaller institution; Richard King Mellon by way of a grant to the Poise Foundation; the Pittsburgh Foundation; the Heinz Endowments; and the Elsie H. Hillman Foundation.

Members of the Pittsburgh community had rallied to increase deposits at the historic institution, but were told that their efforts would only create a higher hurdle for Dwelling House to cross. Increased deposits would increase the amount of reserve capital needed to meet federal requirements. Instead of deposits, the institution needs an influx of investment capital that cannot be withdrawn and will not be insured by the FDIC.

While about $200,000 would be enough to change Dwelling House's status from being "critically undercapitalized" to adequately capitalized, regulators may still require the bank to have a bigger capital cushion, in light of its financial weakness and long history of compliance problems.

"This is pretty unusual," said Cornelius Hurley, director of Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law in Boston. He said it is not every day that a bank comes close to being shut down due to electronic thefts.

"It sounds like they have some serious control issues where somebody could transfer funds out of the institution," he said.