Wells Fargo Seeks OK to Buy Ailing S&L; in Santa Ana

Wells Fargo has asked federal banking regulators for approval to buy Perpetual Savings Assn., a small, insolvent savings and loan firm in Santa Ana.

The Federal Reserve Board in Washington considered the request at a meeting Tuesday, a board spokeswoman said Wednesday. She would not disclose whether the board had made a decision.

Wells Fargo spokeswoman Kim Kellogg confirmed that the San Francisco-based company has asked for permission to buy Perpetual but declined to comment further. Wells is the parent of Wells Fargo Bank, the state’s third-largest commercial bank.

Under bank holding company laws, Wells Fargo must get approval from the Fed before it can complete negotiations with Perpetual. Because Perpetual is in receivership, those negotiations would be conducted with representatives of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, which also must approve the final sale.

Perpetual was seized by federal regulators in March, 1987, and is being operated by a management team hired by the regulators.

The S&L; is a two-branch savings operation that lost $1.25 million in the first nine months of this year. One office is in Los Angeles on Sepulveda Boulevard in Westchester; its headquarters branch is tucked away in an office complex on Sunflower Avenue in Santa Ana.

Perpetual’s liabilities at the end of September exceeded its assets by $11.5 million. The S&L;’s assets were $39 million on Sept. 30. It is expected to end the year with about $30 million in assets, a Perpetual spokesman said.

The Wells Fargo holding company, by contrast, has $44.7 billion in assets and had $131.7 million in third-quarter earnings alone. The company bought Crocker National Bank 2 1/2 years ago to gain a substantial presence in Southern California.