Disney Pumps $1 Million Into Inner-City Bank : Rebuilding: The investment will allow black-owned Family Savings to make $20 million in new loans.

Walt Disney Co. said Tuesday that it plans to invest $1 million in Los Angeles-based Family Savings Bank, the latest major corporate commitment to one of the few Southern California lenders that is minority-owned.

The investment will boost the savings and loan association’s capital by 13% and allow the three-branch bank to make another $20 million in loans primarily to inner-city borrowers.

“This is a great day for Family Savings, a great day for Disney, and a great day for every Angeleno who wants to rebuild Los Angeles,” Family Savings Executive Vice President Ron Thigpenn said shortly after the announcement.

Family Savings is one of three local financial institutions owned by African-Americans. It is headquartered in the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles, with branch offices in Compton and Pasadena.

Disney’s $1-million commitment is a major milestone in the long comeback of Family Savings, which was rocked by a 1987 scandal involving former Chairman Oliver A. Trigg. Trigg was convicted on fraud charges and eventually sentenced to federal prison.

Thigpenn said most of the $20 million that Disney’s investment will generate will be used to make loans on single-family homes and apartments in the inner city.

But he also said the mortgage money may be an important source of indirect funding for entrepreneurs hoping to start new companies or expand in the city’s low-income areas. Homeowners commonly borrow against their equity to fund their own small ventures, he noted.

Tuesday’s announcement was warmly greeted by officials at Rebuild Los Angeles, the nonprofit group formed to help the city recover from last spring’s riots.

“This is exactly the kind of creative partnership between the local community and major corporations that will help turn Los Angeles around,” said Barry Sanders, Rebuild L.A.’s co-chairman.

Disney’s $1-million commitment to Family Savings is the S&L;’s second major victory in luring new capital from large institutions in the last year. Last April, Texas billionaire Robert M. Bass--owner of American Savings--pumped another $1 million into Family through his Keystone Holdings.

Last December, Arco said it would invest $1 million in black-owned Founders National Bank of Los Angeles. The energy giant also promised to match any new capital infusions in Founders by other corporations through the end of 1993.

“We hooked up with Family Savings because it’s a good investment for the city and a good investment for our company,” said Ken Werner, a Disney senior vice president. “This isn’t a cheap publicity stunt. It’s a serious investment.”

In a related development, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and a number of other business and government leaders met with Vice President Al Gore in Washington to discuss the progress of Community Build, another group trying to help the city’s recovery efforts.

Waters told Gore that Community Build recently persuaded an AFL-CIO pension fund to invest $10 million in the group’s rebuilding efforts. Waters also said she welcomed Disney’s investment in Family Savings, but she urged the entertainment giant to do more.

“A million-dollar investment is nice, but a $10-million investment would be nicer,” Waters said. “That’s not too much to ask for a company of Disney’s size.”