S&L; Explains Conservatorship

A recent article in The Times’ Ventura County Life section (“Time to Own Up” May 9) focused on savings and loan real estate holdings currently being sold in Ventura County by the Resolution Trust Corp. (RTC). The article implies that four Ventura County-based branch offices of Santa Barbara Federal Savings & Loan are for sale.

We wish to set the record straight by explaining that, while the branch offices are owned by Santa Barbara Federal Savings, they are not being sold individually or as a unit of four, nor are they listed for sale on any commercial real estate market report. (Santa Barbara Federal Savings is under conservatorship by the Office of Thrift Supervision with the RTC as conservator.)

The article also states: “In the last year, failing financial institutions have handed over millions of dollars worth of Ventura County real estate to the newly created federal Resolution Trust Corp.”

A more accurate and informative way of stating the message would be: “The Resolution Trust Corp. currently holds millions of dollars worth of Ventura County real estate, assigned when savings and loan institutions that failed to meet federal capital requirements were placed under conservatorship by the Office of Thrift Supervision. The RTC, which oversees the management of institutions in conservatorship, was established under the Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of August, 1989.”

APRIL RHODES

Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications

Santa Barbara Federal Savings & Loan Assn.