October 4, 1984

The Zurich Depository Corporation, a private safe-deposit company in Manhasset, L.I., will not mark its first year of operation until November. Unlike most start-up companies, however, Zurich has begun to register marginal profits, giving Robert D. Steinfelder, the company's executive vice president and one of the six private investors who pooled the initial capital four years ago, little worry that the venture will fail. Mr. Steinfelder, whose company has no ties to any Swiss concern, is one of a growing number of entrepreneurs seeking to exploit what they see as a potentially big business: private safe-deposit centers outside of banks. The centers, which appeared first in Florida, have sprung up across the country. Indeed, there are close to 100 private vault centers in operation nationwide, mostly in major metropolitan areas and more affluent suburbs.

''The key thing that makes national law firms work is synergy; with the right combinations, one and one can make three.'' - Steven Kumble, managing partner of Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley & Casey. (D1:5.)

The First National Bank of Chicago, the nation's eighth-largest bank, shocked the financial community today with the announcement that it would report a loss for the three months ended Sept. 30. The loss, the first ever reported by the big Chicago bank, was attributed to bad loans in energy and agriculture. The announcement, following recent huge losses and a $4.5 billion Federal rescue of another big Chicago bank, the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company, raised new concerns about the health of the nation's major banks. Seeking to reassure investors and depositors, Barry F. Sullivan, chairman of First Chicago, predicted that earnings would return to normal in the fourth quarter. For the third quarter, however, the First Chicago Corporation, the holding company that owns the bank, will report a loss of between $70 million and $74 million after putting $308 million into a reserve to cover possible loan losses. The bank will charge $279 million in loans that it does not expect to be repaid against that reserve.

Governor Cuomo announced today that he was establishing a task force on ''life and the law'' to recommend state policies on such issues as when terminally ill patients should be allowed to die and the legal rights of embryos formed outside the womb. Mr. Cuomo, in an appearance at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, said he had invited Roman Catholic, Protestant and Jewish leaders to join the group. An aide to the Governor said that the members of the group had not yet been selected, but that it was hoped they could come up with recommendations on so-called right-to-die issues in time for action by the Legislature next year. 'Beyond Abortion' Mr. Cuomo billed his appearance as a follow-up to his speech two weeks ago at the University of Notre Dame, in which he said that Catholics should seek by example rather than by law to convince others of the correctness of their moral teachings in areas such as abortion.

''I HAVE four grandchildren - my younger daughter's I can see, but my older daughter's I can't,'' said Edith S. Engel of Larchmont, N.Y. Mrs. Engel and her husband, Henry, saw their elder daughter's children several times a year when their mother was married and living in Mexico. But seven years ago their daughter had a nervous breakdown, left her family and moved to Tennessee. The couple was divorced; the husband was given custody of the children, a boy and a girl. He remarried and moved to the United States without informing the Engels of his whereabouts. When the Engels finally located their former son-in-law on Long Island, they set up a meeting to discuss seeing their grandchildren. ''He was adamant that we couldn't see them,'' Mrs. Engel said. ''I didn't want to go to court, but finally I thought, 'I'm damned if I'll let these kids think we've turned our backs on them.' We love them.''