Beverly Hills S&L; Beset by Worried Depositors

Anxious depositors flooded the main office of troubled Beverly Hills Federal Savings & Loan Assn. on Wednesday, but the crowds thinned out as the day wore on after bank officials and regulators assured customers that the S&L; was staying in business.

At one time early in the day, as many as 100 people crowded into the S&L;’s main branch office at 9401 Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills, but the throng had disappeared by closing time, according to spokesmen for the Federal Home Loan Bank Board.

Depositor concern was sparked by the announcement Tuesday that the bank board had seized Beverly Hills Savings & Loan Assn. because the institution was insolvent, meaning that its liabilities exceeded its assets.

Regulators immediately pledged $90 million in promissory notes to give the association a positive net worth.

Lost Some Deposits

Following the seizure, regulators added the word “Federal” to the S&L;’s name and opened the institution for business Wednesday morning. All accounts up to $100,000 remain federally insured. A spokesman for the bank board confirmed that the association lost deposits Wednesday, but he declined to give the amount.

Regulators said the S&L;’s problems resulted from fast growth, an unstable deposit base and poor quality loans and investments. The S&L; has six branches located in some of the toniest parts of Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties.

Meanwhile, top industry officials viewed the takeover as the beginning of a renewed regulatory effort to bail out troubled savings associations by enlisting the management support of healthier associations.

To help run Beverly Hills Federal, regulators have hired First Nationwide Savings, a San Francisco-based financial institution with extensive experience buying troubled S&Ls; in New York and Florida.

“This is a very positive step,” said Robert Adelizzi, president of Home Federal Savings & Loan Assn. of San Diego. “It’s a recognition that there are ways to solve the problems, rather than just let them sit there.”

‘Case-by-Case Basis’

Anthony Frank, chairman of First Nationwide, said he wants to create a thriving management consulting business helping out other S&Ls.; “We want this to be a new business for us,” he said.

A spokesman for the bank board was less enthusiastic about the approach. “Don’t get the impression this is the wave of the future,” he said. “These things are considered on a case-by-case basis.”

Though the management-assistance concept isn’t new, it has been dormant for several years.

The last time that regulators tried this approach was early in the decade when management teams from Home Federal Savings of San Diego were hired to run troubled associations in San Francisco and Miami. The associations were later sold to New York-based Citicorp.

The cost of taking over an S&L; worries regulators because the industry insurance fund run by the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp. has been shrinking, while the amount of insured deposits has been climbing.

In one recent case, the FSLIC spent nearly $200 million--or about 3% of the total fund--to close the insolvent San Marino Savings & Loan Assn.

On another front, the ousted chairman of Beverly Hills Savings, Paul Amir, said in a phone interview that he was “disappointed” by the regulatory action, adding that “‘I thought we would have a chance to restructure the association and protect the interests of the shareholders.”

According to the company’s latest proxy statement, Amir owned about 17% of the company’s stock--an amount worth about $2 million at the time of the seizure.

Amir acquired control of Beverly Hills Savings a year ago after a bitter proxy fight with the former management, headed by then-Chairman Dennis M. Fitzpatrick. Amir now says, however, that he didn’t realize the true condition of the association.