Western Savings and Loan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (September 2007)

Western Savings and Loan
Type	Holdings, loans
Founded	1929
Headquarters	Phoenix, Arizona, United States
Key people	Junius ElMarion Driggs, CEO Douglas Driggs
Industry	Banking
Revenue	$6 billion USD

Phoenix Financial Center: Western Savings headquarters.

Western Savings and Loan was a American financial institution founded by the Driggs family.

The Driggs family came to Arizona in 1921 after trading everything they owned--a bank, drugstore, hotel, and wheat farm in Driggs, Idaho--for a section of cotton land in Maricopa County. Their timing was unfortunate since when their crop came in cotton prices plummeted and they were forced to take jobs selling building and loan certificates. In 1929, the Driggs family pooled $5,000 to found the Western Building and Loan Association, which became Western Savings.

[edit] Success and eventual failure

It eventually becoming a $6 billion savings and loan institution. Western had shared a position on the list of the nation's 100 largest savings and loans with other Arizona based institutions — MeraBank was number 27 on the list, Western came in at 37th, Great American was 67th, and Pima was 82nd. But in 1989, Western Savings moved into second place — not for its size, but for the amount of its losses, with a $1.06 billion net deficit, following a substantial but smaller loss the previous year. Western Savings was taken-over by the Resolution Trust Corporation, the federal depositor for the Savings and Loan Crisis bailout.

[edit] Accomplishments and recognition

American Newcomen honored Western Savings and Loan Association in the year of the Company's 40th anniversary. Since it was formed by the Driggs family in the Spring of 1929, six months before the historic stock crash, Western Savings had at that time grown to become the largest savings and loan association in Arizona and among the 100 largest in the United States. The major objectives of the Association were the encouragement of thrift and the promotion of home ownership. Over the years up to that point, more than 30,000 first mortgage loans had been made, totaling more than 390 million dollars, thus providing an important factor in the growth and development of Arizona.^[1]