Indiek to Leave FCA, Join Far West S

Victor H. Indiek, one of the top executives at troubled Financial Corp. of America, is leaving the Irvine company in mid-August to become president of Far West Savings & Loan in Newport Beach.

Indiek, 50, FCA’s chief financial officer and a key aide to FCA Chairman William Popejoy, will fill a post left vacant by the July 1 resignation of David E. Blackford, Far West said Tuesday.

Indiek will replace Blackford on the boards of the S&L; and its parent, Far West Financial in Los Angeles, and will be a member of both boards’ executive committees. Blackford had intended to retain his seats on the board, but gave up those positions last week because his real estate consulting work led to a conflict of interest.

Indiek, one of six FCA executive vice presidents, also is a senior executive vice president in charge of financial matters at the company’s S&L; unit, American Savings, the nation’s second-largest thrift, with $30.6 billion in assets.

Indiek is the third executive to leave the thrift company in recent months as federal regulators negotiate to sell it to Texas billionaire Robert M. Bass.

Executive Flight

In May, J. Clark Coleman, a top mortgage securities trader for the S&L;, quit to become president of American Savings of Florida. Earlier in the year, FCA director Ralph Stone resigned from the board, citing a press of business.

Also, Kenneth W. Krause, one of FCA’s executive vice presidents, retired in June.

When asked if FCA officials were worried about the executive flight from FCA, company spokeswoman Layna J. Browdy replied, “I wouldn’t characterize it as worried. Certainly people are thinking about or considering their future here because there are some unknowns about the future of the company.”

At the time Coleman left, Popejoy had said he thought more executives would leave. “To be realistic, until the matter of our future is resolved, people will be recruited away,” Popejoy told the Wall Street Journal. Popejoy was conducting a board meeting Tuesday and was unavailable for comment on Indiek’s resignation.

Indiek’s departure came even though FCA instituted a severance plan earlier this year for him and seven other top executives in an effort to maintain management stability while regulators negotiated the sale of the company.

The regulators and Bass have an Aug. 1 deadline to reach an agreement, but a regulatory official said Tuesday that both sides could agree to extend the deadline. Conceivably, a sale to Bass could involve the S&L; only, leaving the holding company to dissolve itself.

FCA will not fill Indiek’s position immediately, a spokeswoman said. Instead, William E. Griscom, chief financial officer for the S&L;, will assume Indiek’s duties in an acting capacity and will work directly with Popejoy.

At Far West, Indiek will be operating a healthy S&L.; Far West posted a $2.7-million profit in the first quarter. With $3.9 billion in assets, it is the state’s 20th-largest S&L.; Far West Financial is controlled by the Belzberg brothers of Canada, who own 53% of the stock.

Indiek, who received $536,275 in salary, bonuses and benefits from FCA last year, reportedly will take a slight cut in pay at his new post.