Golden West Reports Record EPS

Golden West Financial Corp., Oakland, Calif., has reported net earnings of $958.3 million and record earnings per share of $6.12 for 2002, compared with $812.8 million ($5.07 per share) in 2001.For the fourth quarter, earnings totaled $249.4 million ($1.60 per share), up from $228.0 million ($1.44 per share) a year earlier. Loan production also set a record of $26.7 billion in 2002, up 29% from $20.8 billion in 2001. "Golden West's loan team produced our highest mortgage volume ever," said Marion O. Sandler, chairman and chief executive officer of Golden West, the parent company of World Savings. "While this was impressive, what was special was the make-up of these originations. The vast majority of the company's new loans were in the form of adjustable-rate mortgages, and virtually all had interest rates that change monthly. This is important, because these variable-rate loans help limit the exposure of the company's earnings to swings in interest rates." Golden West and World Savings can be found online at http://www.gdw.com and http://www.worldsavings.com.