BANKING / FINANCE : Buck Stops in Beverly Hills as State Turns Guardian S&L; Into a Truman

Guardian Savings & Loan recently won state authority to operate as an S&L; in California and to open an office in Beverly Hills.

Trouble is, Guardian Savings & Loan has been operating in Huntington Beach for 6 years.

Sound confusing? That’s what the folks at the Huntington Beach operation thought. So they filed protests with state regulators over the application of the other Guardian Savings--which is based in Houston--to use its name in California.

“We don’t want to confuse the customers,” Larry R. Day, general counsel of Guardian in Huntington Beach, said. The locally based S&L; has six branches, with its original Long Beach office being the closest to Beverly Hills. It also has a loan production office in Van Nuys.

Talks with regulators and executives from the incoming S&L;, Day said, produced a “verbal understanding” that the word Guardian will not be used in the Beverly Hills operation.

Regulators said the Houston-based S&L; will be known in Beverly Hills as Truman Savings & Loan.