December 27, 1984

This has been a sobering year for the nation's banking system as more banks failed than in any year since the Great Depression. With the collapse last weekend of a small bank in Sandwich, Ill., the number of failures in 1984 rose to 79, the highest since 81 banks failed in 1938. To be sure, this year's failures are a far cry from the 4,000 or so banks that failed in 1933, when there was no insurance system in place to cushion the blow, either to depositors or to the economy as a whole. Nonetheless, the rash of failures reflects both the existence of trouble spots in the economy - including agriculture, energy and real estate - as well as the uneven capabilities of bankers. But if the numbers loom large, there are some comforting aspects to them. For one thing, most of the failed banks were relatively small institutions. Although their problems may have shaken their local communities, they represented only a small portion of the banking system, smaller even than in recent years. Deposits at failed banks this year totalled only $2.9 billion, well below the $5.4 billion last year and the $9.9 billion of the previous year.

In a move that industry analysts said could spur other companies to lower oil prices, the Phillips Petroleum Company yesterday cut the price it will pay for the most common grade of crude oil in the United States by $1, to $28 a barrel. Most producers offer about $29 a barrel or a bit less for the key grade of oil, West Texas Intermediate. Refiners offer considerably less, because as nonproducers they have no interest in keeping prices up. But it is the prices offered by major companies that are both producers and refiners, such as Phillips, that attract the most attention.

The telephone industry has undergone sweeping changes since last Jan. 1, when the American Telephone and Telegraph Company divested itself of its 22 Bell operating companies. But as the first year comes to a close, Americans cannot agree whether the breakup of the Bell System was a good idea. Supporters of the breakup say that it has already produced lower long-distance rates, a telephone industry teeming with competitors and a rush of new communications technologies that will give American companies an important edge in competition with foreign rivals. Innovation Called Key ''The most important part of this is innovation, the fact that competition will drive the competitors to create new products,'' said Federal District Judge Harold H. Greene, who presided over the breakup and continues to supervise A.T.& T. and its former subsidiaries. He added: ''I have no doubt that this will bring about benefits to the economy. Information will be to this period what steel and coal were 50 years ago.''

An article in Business Day Dec. 8 about imported gift products misnamed the countries in which Charles Jourdan products are manufactured. They are France and Italy.

Put bonds. Springing warrants. Superstock. Money-market preferred shares. When it came to dreaming up new twists on old ways of raising money for American businesses, the corporate finance gurus of Wall Street had a creative and busy year. ''I think we've seen more fundamental changes in '84 than any year ever,'' said David C. Batten, a managing director of the First Boston Corporation. A Variety of Reasons