THRIFT'S QUARTER EARNINGS SURGE; ECONOMY AIDS GOLDEN STATE.Byline: Sam Zuckerman Bloomberg News Golden State Bancorp, California's fourth-largest thrift, said fiscal fourth-quarter earnings rose 53 percent as the thrift added low-cost deposits, widening the gap between interest rates it paid and rates it collected on loans. The Glendale-based thrift said profit from operations in the quarter ended June 30 rose $5 million, or 57 cents a diluted di·lute tr.v. di·lut·ed, di·lut·ing, di·lutes 1. To make thinner or less concentrated by adding a liquid such as water. 2. To lessen the force, strength, purity, or brilliance of, especially by admixture. share, from $28.4 million, or 42 cents, a year ago. The latest results included $7.3 million in charges related to the thrift's breach-of-contract lawsuit against the U.S. government. Net income rose to $39.3 million, or 51 cents a diluted share, from $24.3 million, or 36 cents, in the year-earlier period. Golden State was expected to earn 46 cents a share, the average forecast of six analysts surveyed by First Call Corp. Golden State's ``margins held up well and they increased assets and deposits,'' said Salomon Smith Barney Smith Barney is a division of Citigroup Global Capital Markets Inc., a global, full-service financial firm, that provides brokerage, investment banking and asset management services to corporations, governments and individuals around the world. analyst Thomas O'Donnell, who has a ``buy'' rating on the thrift. ``If you do that, you're going to have a good number.'' Golden State shares fell 37.5 cents to $31 on Tuesday. California's robust economy boosted virtually all aspects of Golden State's business. Profit gains reflected ``higher loan originations The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. and increased (checking) deposit accounts,'' boosting net interest margins and fee income, said Chairman and Chief Executive Stephen Trafton. Golden State net interest income rose 20 percent to $119.7 million as funding costs fell while loan balances grew, even though more borrowers paid off mortgages ahead of schedule. The gap between interest rates paid for funds and those the bank collected on loans and securities rose to 2.89 percent from 2.68 percent from a year earlier. It narrowed 0.06 percentage point in the three months ended in June. A combination of internal growth and acquisitions pushed checking account balances, a cheap source of funds, up 51 percent from June 1997 to $1.81 billion. Noninterest income rose 24 percent to $29.4 million, reflecting increased automated teller TELLER. An officer in a bank or other institution. He is said to take that name from tallier, or one who kept a tally, because it is his duty to keep the accounts between the bank or other institution and its customers, or to make their accounts tally. and deposit fees. The increase came even as loan-servicing income fell 34 percent as borrowers paid off mortgages at a faster pace to tap lower rates. Net income for fiscal 1998 ended June 30 rose to $128.7 million, or $1.78 a diluted share, from $50.4 million, or 64 cents a share, in fiscal 1997. Earlier this year, Golden State agreed to merge with San Francisco-based California Federal Bank California Federal Bank, often abbreviated to "Cal Fed", was a savings and loan bank in California. It existed from 1926 until 2002, when its parent company Golden State Bancorp was acquired by Citigroup, resulting in the bank being merged into Citibank. , a closely held A phrase used to describe the ownership, management, and operation of a corporation by a small group of people. In a closely held corporation, the same people often act as shareholders, directors, and officers, and no outside investors exist. thrift owned by financier Ronald Perelman For the actor, see . Ronald Owen Perelman (born January 1, 1943) is an American billionaire investor who made his fortune buying beleaguered corporations and re-selling them later for enormous profits. and Texas banker Gerald Ford, creating the second-largest U.S. savings and loan savings and loan n. a banking and lending institution, chartered either by a state or the Federal government. Savings and loans only make loans secured by real property from deposits, upon which they pay interest slightly higher than that paid by most banks. . |
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