Thrifts Tout Southern L.A. Loan Record : S&Ls;: A trade group releases figures showing that the industry does a much better job of extending home mortgages in the area than banks.

In a potentially embarrassing disclosure for California’s commercial banks, the trade group for the state’s savings and loans is distributing data this week showing that banks deny home loans in southern Los Angeles at more than twice the rate that thrifts do.

The data, which appears in a newsletter being mailed out by the California League of Savings Institutions, is based on a 1990 home-lending study recently released by the Federal Reserve Board. Although banks have become more aggressive in making home loans statewide, they are far less active in extending credit to homeowners in southern Los Angeles than thrifts, the thrift association said.

The figures show, for example, that Bank of America, the largest lender in southern Los Angeles among commercial banks, made $40 million in home loans in the area in 1990, less than 10% of the $430 million made by Great Western Bank, the most active thrift. Great Western was among 10 thrifts that made more than $45 million each in home loans in the area.

Distribution of the data is a clear effort by the state’s S&Ls; to differentiate themselves from banks as criticism grows that lenders often avoid making prudent home loans in low-income and minority areas. Jay Janis, president of the S&L; trade group, said the data was released not to knock banks but to counter impressions that thrifts are inactive in lending in southern Los Angeles.

The findings show that thrifts denied home loans to 16% of applicants from southern Los Angeles, about the same as their statewide average. That compares to more than 40% for banks.

The figures also show that thrifts took in $274 million in new deposits in 1990 in southern Los Angeles, while making $1.7 billion in loans.

Banks did not dispute the numbers, which track such activity as home purchases, home improvement loans, refinancings and apartment building loans.

They offered three major explanations for the dramatic difference. For one thing, banks often have higher standards for extending credit than thrifts, in part because banks tend to sell loans more often to investors who demand higher standards.

Another reason bankers cited is that savings and loans over the years have specialized in home loans--although banks in the late 1980s made dramatic inroads into that market as the thrift industry’s problems worsened.

Nancy Badley, spokeswoman for the California Bankers Assn., added that home buyers are increasingly using mortgage brokers to find the best loan possible, and that brokers are more likely to steer a home buyer to a thrift because rates are generally lower. Those applicants, she said, have already been screened as good risks by the time they apply for a loan.

Badley’s analysis of the data stems from a study performed for the bankers association by Smith Banking Consultants in Glendale using 1990 Fed data. The 1991 numbers have yet to be released.

Gilda Haas, an official with Communities for Accountable Reinvestment, which pressures banks into lending more in southern Los Angeles, said the conclusions the thrifts are drawing are misleading because they do not take into account the active role of finance companies. The Fed does not compile lending patterns for finance companies, whose activities have mushroomed in southern Los Angeles, in part to fill a void caused by the lack of bank and thrift offices in the area.

Haas added that while thrifts are more active in lending in southern Los Angeles, they have few branch offices to provide basic banking services to residents.