Center National Bank Changes Presidents as It Fights Losses

For the second time in just over a year, Center National Bank of Woodland Hills has a new president and chief executive. He is Paul E. Brandt, 53, former executive vice president of Mercantile National Bank in Century City.

Brandt will preside over a bank that hopes to recover from relatively hefty losses. During the first nine months of this year, Center National lost $390,000, largely because of increasing its loan-loss reserves to offset possible bad loans.

Since opening in June, 1982, Center National has lost $566,000, despite profits in 1983 and 1984.

For Brandt, turnaround efforts are nothing new. In 1983 he was brought in as president of Encino-based West Coast Bank in a last-ditch, and unsuccessful, attempt to save the institution from collapse. Brandt is loath to discuss his experience at West Coast Bank, however, and disavows the notion that he is a turnaround specialist.

Rejects ‘Savior’ Tag

“I’m not here because I’m a savior. I’m here because I’m a banker,” said Brandt, who began his career in banking as a messenger at 18.

He said Center National executives believe the bank’s losses “are pretty much behind us.” Center National is in the midst of shrinking its assets to $50 million, he said, down from a high of $68.9 million in September, 1984. The bank seeks to stabilize itself from the jolt of its two years of rapid growth after opening in 1982.

Victor Weiner, Center National’s vice chairman, said, “We’re concentrating on the West Valley rather than being another Century City type of bank.”

Brandt declined to give details on his plans to improve the bank’s performance.

Until now, Center National has concentrated on auto loans and other installment credit, loans to small and medium-sized businesses and real estate brokerage. It also has specialized in the financing of premium payments for consumers’ auto insurance policies.

Replaces Tarter

Brandt replaces Thomas A. Tarter, 42, who joined Center National as president in November, 1984. Tarter resigned to take a job as executive vice president of First Los Angeles Bank in Century City, where he had worked previously.

Tarter said his work at Center National “wasn’t my cup of tea.” He said he left Center National because he has more business contacts on the Westside and prefers working on the comparatively large transactions that First Los Angeles handles. Tarter had replaced Albert J. White, Center National’s first president.

Whereas presidents have come and gone at Center National, the bank’s board has had few changes otherwise. The board has been headed since the bank’s founding by Sheldon H. Lytton, a lawyer who was chief of staff to former California Lt. Gov. Mike Curb.

Factor Inflating Loss

Weiner, the only current director other than Brandt to join the board since the bank was founded, said Center National’s losses were inflated this year by the precautionary step it took of substantially increasing its loan-loss reserves. Allocations for loan-loss reserves are subtracted from earnings. “Maybe we’re playing too conservative, but that’s the way it is,” Weiner said.

“We didn’t want to project an image that we were going great guns, making money hand over fist.”

Center National employs 68 people at its single bank branch and nearby insurance premium offices in Woodland Hills.