July loan originations at Golden West Financial Corp. fell to $3.7 billion, down 5 percent from June and down 17.3 percent from the same month last year.
Nearly all of the loans made by the Oakland, Calif.-based community bank are in the form of adjustable-rate mortgages, and credit quality has slipped. Nonperforming assets (bad loans) and “troubled debt” as a percentage of total assets increased to 0.4 percent in July, up from 0.28 percent a year ago, the bank reported.
Golden West, which has agreed to be acquired by Wachovia Corp. for $25.5 billion, reported total assets of $129.3 billion, up from $118.6 billion a year ago.
