First Nationwide Chairman : Tony Frank: Shrewd, Provocative Executive
Whenever First Nationwide Savings is mentioned in industry circles, the name of its chairman and chief executive, Anthony M. Frank, nearly always pops up.
As one admiring competitor put it, “Tony Frank is First Nationwide Savings.”
A blunt, 53-year-old Dartmouth-educated Democrat, Frank is a delight to his admirers and a scourge to his enemies. Witty, controversial and shrewd, he is one of the few colorful executives in the savings and loan industry.
However, he is very much a part of the tight-knit California savings and loan establishment that wields enormous clout in regulatory and trade-group circles. He is, for example, a director of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco.
Speaks Out Loudly
Yet, unlike his contemporaries, who rarely speak out in public, Frank speaks out loudly and often. Last year, in some of his more memorable remarks, he called on regulators to force out the “bums” in the industry who run high-risk operations.
“I don’t know how many more headlines . . . our industry can take before the good shops are affected by the bums,” he told a group of savings executives in Florida. “I want to get rid of them.”
Frank was especially contemptuous of the fast-growth policies of Charles W. Knapp, an equally colorful figure whom regulators forced to resign last August as chairman of Financial Corp. of America. The mere mention of Frank’s name still rankles Knapp’s close colleagues, most of whom left FCA after Knapp did.
Under Frank’s 14-year leadership, First Nationwide Savings has managed to survive the uncertain times of the past five years through a mixture of aggressiveness and shrewdness. It is one of the few S&Ls; that can boast that it made money every year between 1980 and 1984.
Since 1981, the company has expanded into a national financial institution through franchising and acquisitions. It was the first S&L; to operate branch offices on both coasts--hence its name--and now has branch outlets in J. C. Penney stores in Northern California and K mart stores in San Diego County.
Its last major expansion was in April, when it took over 20 branches in Hawaii owned by the failed State Savings & Loan Assn. of Salt Lake City. It now has branches in four states and franchise operations in 20 states.
A cornerstone of First Nationwide’s financial success is a 10-year agreement negotiated with banking regulators in 1981--a document that still draws irritated mutters from its envious competitors.
Under the terms of that accord, First Nationwide agreed to take over insolvent S&Ls; in New York and Florida. In return, the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp., which insures most thrift accounts up to $100,000, agreed to cover losses and expenses on the loans at the failed financial institutions.
The agreement helped spark a wave of government-subsidized interstate mergers in which failing institutions were acquired by larger, healthy savings and loans.
The agreement helped First Nationwide show a profit of $11.5 million in 1981 and $6.89 million in 1982--no small feat considering that the savings and loan industry as a whole lost nearly $9 billion in those two years.
Company documents at the Securities and Exchange Commission show that First Nationwide has received nearly $380 million from the FSLIC since the agreement was reached.
