Butterfield Branches Are Sold to Great American in San Diego

The Federal Home Loan Bank Board has approved the sale of two Butterfield Savings and Loan branches to Great American First Savings Bank in San Diego for an undisclosed sum.

Kenneth Ulrich, a spokesman for Great American, said that about $40 million in deposits from Butterfield’s Temecula and Lake Elsinore branches will be transferred to Great American’s nearby offices Monday.

A spokesman for Santa Ana-based Butterfield said the sale leaves financially ailing Butterfield with its main office and a branch in Bakersfield.

The move to sell the two branches was initiated in April by Butterfield’s former directors to raise money for the ailing thrift and to reduce its operating expenses. The S&L; was seized and declared insolvent last week by government regulators, who then reconstituted Butterfield as a federally chartered mutual with a new board of directors and management team.

Ulrich said that Great American will transfer Butterfield’s deposits into accounts with comparable rates and maturity dates, and that business will not be interrupted. He added that Great American will try to retain “as many of the branch employees as we can.”

Great American, with $7.3 billion assets, has 117 branches in the state, including 11 in Riverside County.