S & L; Deposits Up 14% As Uneasy Investors Play Safe
By RAJIV VYAS
People are turning to neighborhood savings and loans as a safe place to park money amid woeful stock market returns.
And they’re doing so at a faster rate than the impressive gains posted by commercial banks, which pay slightly lower interest than savings and loans.
Thrifts operating in Orange County reported a 14% increase in deposits for the 12 months ended June 30, 2002, according to this week’s Business Journal list, which ranks savings and loans by OC deposits. The 14% growth beat the 8% gain in deposits reported by the top 25 commercial banks in Orange County (see story, page 37).
And it also beat year-earlier growth of 8% for OC savings and loans. Statistics were obtained from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Treasury Department’s Office of Thrift Supervision.
A note about list rankings: comparisons were made vs. the November 2001 list, which reflected June 30, 2001 deposits.
The 16 thrifts on this year’s list reported total deposits of $15.8 billion, up from $13.9 billion a year earlier.
No. 1 Washington Mutual Bank in Irvine repeated as the list leader, with deposits of $6.6 billion, a 20% increase vs. a year ago. Its company-wide assets grew 22% to $228.9 billion. The thrift dwarfs its OC competitors, more than doubling the deposits at the No. 2 S & L.;
Seattle-based Washington Mutual, the largest thrift in the U.S., increased its market share of OC deposits to 42% from 37% a year earlier, growing seven percentage points faster than Bank of America Corp., the biggest commercial bank in the county.
The biggest mover on the list was No. 3 Citibank, which moved up seven places after buying former No. 4 California Federal Bank in November.
No. 2 World Savings Bank in Laguna Hills moved up a spot with 18% growth in deposits to $2.5 billion and an 8% boost in company-wide assets to $62.3 billion.
No. 4 Newport Beach-based Downey Savings & Loan Association dropped out of the No. 2 spot with a slim 1% growth in assets to $2.2 billion. Downey’s company-wide assets were up 3% to $11.1 billion.
The fastest-growing thrift was No. 8 Irvine-based Commercial Capital Bank, which moved up nine spots. Its deposits grew by 611% to $241.6 million. Last year the thrift also was the fastest growing, with a 203% growth in deposits.
Commercial Capital started as a mortgage company,FIP Mortgage,in 1998. In January 2000, the company acquired Mission Savings & Loan Association, a bank based in Riverside County. The startup bank saw its company-wide deposits increase 232% to $537.5 million in the past 12 months.
The biggest decline in deposits was at No. 10 Costa Mesa-based Pacific Premier Bank. Its deposits fell 26% to $89.7 million after closing two underperforming offices.
There were no newcomers to the list, while four thrifts dropped off.
In addition to California Federal, former No. 5 Fidelity Federal Bank and No. 9 Peoples Bank of California were bought by California National Bank. No. 18 Sterling Bank & Trust closed its OC branch.
The thrifts together added 776 jobs in OC, an increase of 16% to 5,725. Washington Mutual, which accounts for more than half of the workers employed by OC savings and loans, added 51 workers.
