THE SALE OF AMERICAN SAVINGS : The Buyer, the Sellers . . . : Roger Martin Is ‘Loose Cannon’ at Bank Board
The banking regulator most directly involved in the attempted rescue of American Savings is Roger F. Martin, a 61-year-old businessman from Wisconsin who joined the three-member Federal Home Loan Bank Board a year ago.
From the beginning of his tenure on the board, Martin has had the difficult and highly charged task of finding new capital for American Savings.
It did not take long for Martin, although likable, to earn a reputation as a loose cannon on the deck of the bank board. His public statements occasionally caused havoc within American Savings and sent his shaken public relations staff scrambling.
Martin once told reporters that the bank board had ordered American Savings to begin liquidating its mortgage-backed securities portfolio. The public comments ruined any chance American Savings had to get top price for the securities through a quiet selloff.
Martin’s marriage to the bureaucracy has not always been smooth either. He once became so frustrated when he could not get his government car phone repaired that he cut the cord and gave the phone to a surprised staff member. He eventually paid $16 for destruction of government property.
Yet even those who think of Martin as occasionally heavy-handed also laud him for his purity of motive and determination to see the job through.
“Roger wants to accomplish something,” American Savings Chairman William J. Popejoy said. “This job is not a stepping stone for him. This is the crowning glory of his career.”
Martin nearly forged an agreement for Ford Motor Co. to take over American Savings at the end of 1987, but the deal fell apart at the 11th hour, sparking charges of betrayal on both sides. Ford had reportedly agreed to put up as much as $1 billion in cash to take over American Savings.
A Republican Party loyalist, Martin came to the bank board from the Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. in Milwaukee, where he was known as the company trouble shooter.
“When the ox is in the ditch,” Leon T. Kendall, Martin’s former boss at MGIC, has said, “you call Roger.”
