San Clemente S&L; to Change Its Name Along With Locale

For some time, San Clemente Savings & Loan has been having a difficult time getting loan customers at its Newport Beach office. Now the S&L;’s executives think they know why.

“It’s hard to get borrowers when they think they have to go to San Clemente” to fill out loan papers, said John R. Polen, the S&L;’s president and chief executive officer.

“But San Clemente Savings is really based in Newport Beach,” he said, and has been since American Pacesetter, a Newport Beach home-building company, bought the S&L; in 1984.

But while American Pacesetter moved the five-branch S&L;’s main offices from San Clemente to Newport Beach, the name kept potential customers from realizing it, Polen said.

So S&L; executives figured the best way to halt the perception that the institution serves only the San Clemente area would be to change its name.

If regulators approve, San Clemente S&L; soon will be called USA Savings Bank--which gives it a lot of territory to cover.