Golden State Bank Seized by Federal Regulators

The troubled life of tiny Golden State Bank ended Friday when federal regulators seized the savings and loan, declaring that it had no prospects of recovering from its weakened financial condition.

The Office of Thrift Supervision put the Irvine S&L; in receivership and transferred its operations to a newly chartered thrift called Golden State Federal Savings Bank, which will be operated at the thrift’s Sherman Oaks office by the Resolution Trust Corp.

The thrift, with $50.6 million in assets, lost a total of $672,000 during the past eight quarters and was stuck with $4 million in bad loans.

When it opened in Newport Beach in 1984, it was called Westmark Savings Bank. It became Sherman Oaks Savings Bank in late 1987, and its new owners had grandiose plans for increasing the thrift’s size tenfold to at least $300 million in assets.

The thrift did move to Sherman Oaks the following year but never posted an annual profit again. It got caught up in the financial woes and bankruptcy actions involving its primary shareholder, Stanley I. Glickman. After he left, the S&L; moved its headquarters to Irvine last year but never was able to open a branch in Orange County.