State Banking Chief Takes Post at Secura

Howard Gould will leave his post as superintendent of the State Banking Department next month to become head of the Los Angeles office of the Secura Group, a bank consulting firm.

Gould, 39, has headed the state regulatory agency for the past two years. Before that, he spent three years as one of Gov. George Deukmejian’s top aides on financial services regulation.

The State Banking Department regulates and examines the 271 state-chartered banks in California. State-chartered banks tend to be smaller, community banks, although some are large, including First Interstate Bank of California.

The Secura Group, which has its headquarters in Washington, was founded by former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman William M. Isaac. Along with bank consulting, the firm has assisted in arranging many recent mergers in the banking and savings and loan industries.

Gould said in an interview Tuesday that he will become a partner and head of the firm’s existing four-person office in Los Angeles. He said he expects to concentrate on bank consulting, and bank merger and acquisition activity.

Merger activity among California banks has been active recently as the state prepares for the introduction of interstate banking in 1991. That means that banks from outside the West will be able to compete fully here for the first time.

Last year, there were 15 bank mergers in California, nearly double 1987’s total of eight and well above the four mergers in 1986.

In addition, the troubles in the savings and loan industry and possible effects of reform efforts mean that increased mergers and acquisitions are likely there, too.

“We’re not waiting until ‘91,” said Gould. “What I will be looking at is helping banks and thrifts take advantage of marketplace opportunities that exist today.”

As superintendent of banks, Gould has been credited with modernizing the office through the introduction of more extensive use of computers and more sophisticated methods of monitoring the financial health of banks.

In addition to establishing a training program for bank examiners, Gould set up the department’s first unit for providing an ongoing analysis of bank financial data to supplement periodic examinations.

Gould said he is optimistic about the health of California’s state-chartered banks. He said no state bank failed last year after five failures in 1987. He said the number of institutions classified by regulators as “problem banks,” meaning that they require extra scrutiny, declined last year to 27, compared to a high of 47 in 1986.

Gould, who spent five years with Wells Fargo Bank before joining state government, said he and his family will move from the San Francisco Bay Area to Glendora in the San Gabriel Valley.