BANKING

Executive Exchange: Several Orange County savings and loans have changed top executives and are rethinking their business strategies.

Universal Savings Bank in Orange hired veteran thrift operator Kellogg Chan as its chairman and president.

Chan built East-West Federal Bank in Los Angeles from an S&L; with $25 million in loans and other assets in 1979 to a regional concern with $1.3 billion in assets by the time he retired in 1992. Universal’s owner, Taiwanese businessman J.S. Chang, hopes Chan can do something similar at Universal.

“I assume there’s going to be some growth once we get some of the problems here resolved,” Chan said. Universal wants to rid itself of some bad apartment loans that have been a drag on earnings and growth.

At Standard Pacific Savings in Newport Beach, there is little lending going on. Its parent company, home builder Standard Pacific Corp. in Costa Mesa, laid off the president, chief lending officer and nearly the entire mortgage banking operation at the end of July. Higher interest rates this year have crimped mortgage bankers.

“We’re still working on a game plan,” said Richard Ambrose, the S&L;’s chief financial officer and acting president. The thrift is still making some loans, both to hold in its portfolio and to sell to investors, to generate enough revenue to cover expenses, he said.

Standard Pacific’s former president, David Spahlinger, landed at Cornerstone Savings & Loan in Mission Viejo. Cornerstone has given up the apartment and commercial real estate lending that has hurt it, and Spahlinger is helping to devise a business plan by the end of this month.

The thrift, which is operating under regulatory orders, laid off most of its lenders before Spahlinger arrived several weeks ago. Cornerstone “at the moment” is making just enough loans to break even, the new president said.