BANKING / FINANCE : American Savings to Open Its Crenshaw Branch With a Bang

American Savings Bank is pulling out all the stops to celebrate Thursday’s opening of its Crenshaw Mall branch, the first major financial institution in nine years to enter the mainly minority, low-income, South Central Los Angeles market.

The Irvine-based thrift is bringing out American Savings Chairman Mario Antoci and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, along with several City Council members and other community leaders, to attend the opening of its 174th branch.

The branch is part of American Savings’ year-old program aimed at making banking services available to lower-income areas. Like a branch in East Los Angeles and one in Oakland, the South Central branch will be staffed with bilingual employees, community outreach personnel and special loan officers who can help potential customers qualify for loans.

Someone who doesn’t qualify for a loan, for instance, will be steered to a special loan officer familiar with state and government programs that could help the person qualify, according to Paul Wood, an American Savings spokesman.

American’s executives point to the program as one reason they are so angry with a San Francisco coalition of special interest groups that accuse the S&L; of redlining.

The Greenlining Coalition claims that the S&L; has redlined minority neighborhoods throughout the state by failing to provide enough services, including loans, to blacks and Latinos. American Savings has denied the claims outright, pointing to numerous programs aimed at delivering financial services to low-income areas.

Redlining is the refusal to make loans or provide other services in a particular neighborhood solely because of deteriorating conditions. The practice violates federal law and is considered by civil rights advocates as symptomatic of racism.