BANKING / FINANCE

Redlining Charges Denied: American Savings Bank, reacting angrily to charges that its lending practices amounted to redlining, said it has made a “strong financial commitment” to California’s poor and should not be confused with its predecessor thrift, one-time industry leader American Savings & Loan.

A coalition of minority and consumer groups had complained to Congress that American Savings Bank in Irvine has ignored the home loan needs of blacks and Latinos by failing to make mortgages in certain areas of the state, a practice known as redlining.

But the savings bank, created at the end of 1988 out of the collapsed American S&L;, charged that the Greenlining Coalition of San Francisco was wrong to single out the institution.

A statement from the savings bank outlined seven efforts it has undertaken in the last year to get home loans to poor people. Those efforts include applying for state approval to open new branches in poor areas and funding 9% of its home loans to black and Latino home buyers in those areas.

“The Greenlining Coalition has continued to attempt to compare American Savings Bank with the activities of a bankrupt institution that no longer exists,” the institution’s statement said.