Herbert Sandler

2025-09-28T22:42:28Z

2600:1700:4EAD:A400:6D72:961E:32F:42C0: /* Early life */

{{short description|American banker and philanthropist (1931-2019)}}
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{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2019}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Herb Sandler
|birth_date = {{birth date|1931|11|16}}
|birth_place = [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S.
|death_date = {{death date and age|2019|6|5|1931|11|16}}
|death_place = [[San Francisco]], [[California]], U.S.
|spouse = [[Marion Sandler|Marion Osher]]
|education = [[City College of New York]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br />[[Columbia University]] ([[Bachelor of Laws|LLB]])
}}
'''Herbert Sandler''' (November 16, 1931 – June 5, 2019)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.themaynepress.com/2019/06/06/herb-sandler-banker-who-financed-propublica-dies-at-87-news/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200818081552/http://www.themaynepress.com/2019/06/06/herb-sandler-banker-who-financed-propublica-dies-at-87-news/|archive-date=2020-08-18|title=Herb Sandler, Banker Who Financed ProPublica, Dies at 87}}</ref> was a co-CEO (with his wife, [[Marion Sandler]]) of [[Golden West Financial|Golden West Financial Corporation]] and [[World Savings Bank]]. He died on June 4, 2019, at the age of 87.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.propublica.org/article/herb-sandler-the-man-who-made-propublica-possible|title=The Man Who Made ProPublica Possible|last=Richard Tofel|first=Stephen Engelberg|date=2019-06-05|website=ProPublica|language=en|access-date=2019-06-05}}</ref> Golden West Financial's lending practices had ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine include Sandler and his wife Marion in their list of the "[[Subprime mortgage crisis|25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis]]".<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=
https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1877351_1877350_1877343,00.html|title=25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=February 11, 2009 |language=en|access-date=2019-06-05}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Herbert Sandler was born on November 16, 1931, in New York City. He grew up in a [[Jewish]] family in the [[Bronx]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Herbert Sandler | url=https://www.influencewatch.org/person/herbert-sandler/ | website=InfluenceWatch | access-date=June 24, 2024}}</ref>

== Education ==
Sandler graduated from [[Stuyvesant High School]] in New York City and the [[City College of New York]] in 1951. He graduated from [[Columbia Law School]] in 1954.<ref name="SFC06062019">Herbert Sandler Obituary, ''San Francisco Chronicle'', June 6, 2019</ref><ref name="WASHINGTONPOST">{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/herbert-sandler-sandl-magnate-who-also-seeded-propublica-dies-at-87/2019/06/05/6faa6f7e-879e-11e9-a491-25df61c78dc4_story.html|title=Herbert Sandler, S&L magnate who also seeded ProPublica, dies at 87|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] }}</ref>

==Career==
In 1963, the Sandlers created Golden West Financial Corporation, a savings and loan holding company, to acquire Golden West Savings and Loan Association, the predecessor to World Savings Bank. Since that time, Golden West grew into one of the largest [[Savings and loan association|thrifts]] in the U.S. with assets of approximately $125 billion, deposits of $60 billion, and 12,000 employees. Under the Sandlers' management, Golden West generated a 19 percent average annual compound growth in earnings per share over a 39-year period. The company was described as "one of the most efficient and productive money machines on the planet",<ref>{{cite book|title=Less is More|isbn=1591840309 |last1=Jennings |first1=Jason |date=December 30, 2003 |publisher=Penguin Publishing }}</ref> and was included 10 times in [[Fortune (magazine)|''Fortune'']] magazine's annual list of the United States' most admired companies.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2006_Feb_28/ai_n26775126 |work=Business Wire |title=Fortune Magazine Names Golden West Financial Most Admired Mortgage Services Company |year=2006}}</ref> The Sandlers were also named "2004 CEOs of the Year" by Morningstar, Inc.

In an article on the death of Marion Sandler, Ryan Mac of ''[[Forbes]]'' notes that Golden West "instituted borrowing practices that were largely blamed for the housing market collapse".<ref>{{cite web|first1=Ryan|last1=Mac|accessdate=January 22, 2019|title=Former Golden West CEO And Billionaire Marion Sandler Dead At 81|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2012/06/04/former-golden-west-ceo-and-billionaire-marion-sandler-dead-at-81/|website=Forbes|date=June 4, 2012}}</ref>

Golden West was sold in 2006 for $24 billion to [[Wachovia Bank]] and the acquisition was completed in October 2006.<ref name="Moore2008">{{Cite news|title=Wachovia-Golden West: Another Deal From Hell? |url=https://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2008/07/22/wachovia-golden-west-another-deal-from-hell/?mod=googlenews_wsj |date=July 8, 2008 |last=Moore |first=Heidi N. |work=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |accessdate=December 25, 2008}}</ref> The Sandlers owned about 10% of the company at the time of the sale, making their share of the sale price worth about $2.4 billion. Of this the Sandlers gave $1.3 billion to the [[Sandler Foundation]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.philanthropy.com/stats/donors/detail.php?ID_Gift=1975|title=America's most generous donors}} {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090220011158/http://philanthropy.com/stats/donors/detail.php?ID_Gift=1975 |date=February 20, 2009 }}</ref>

==Role in subprime mortgage crisis==

Sandler and his wife have throughout their public life denounced predatory lenders and the poor underwriting practices of other lenders. However, the actual practices of their firm especially in the 2000s, undermined their conservative lending principles and reputations, especially in the wake of the [[Subprime mortgage crisis|housing crash in 2008]].<ref>{{cite news|first1=Joe|last1=Nocera|accessdate=|title= Self-Made Philanthropists|work=[[The New York Times Magazine]] |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/magazine/09Sandlers-t.html? | ref=magazine Times|date=March 9, 2008}}</ref>

The Sandlers are credited with the invention of the "Pick-A-Pay" mortgage that allowed borrowers to pay less than the interest due on their loan each month—which increased the total amount owed by the borrower. Analysts place the blame on the near failure of [[Wachovia]] in the fall of 2008 on the "Pick-A-Pay" mortgage portfolio they acquired from the Sandler's firm.<ref>{{cite web|first1=Dean|last1=Foust|accessdate= |title= Pick-A-Pay Goes Away... |url= http://www.businessweek.com:80/the_thread/hotproperty/archives/2008/06/pick_a_pay.html |website=Business Week|date=June 30, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080706161906/http://www.businessweek.com:80/the_thread/hotproperty/archives/2008/06/pick_a_pay.html |archive-date=July 6, 2008 }}</ref>

Martin Eakes, the director of the [[Center for Responsible Lending]], said that prepayment penalties would make it hard for cash-poor borrowers to refinance a loan for one with more manageable terms, and helped to get a law passed in [[North Carolina]] prohibiting such charges. The Sandlers supported prepayment penalties, acknowledging that lenders used the penalties to lock borrowers into “absolutely awful” loans, but saying that his firm used the penalties to fend off unethical brokers who enticed borrowers with low-interest-rate loans that often had hidden fees. Sandler described independent brokers as "the whores of the world”, nonetheless by 2006 independent brokers generated 60 percent of World Savings' loan business, and he claimed that he was compelled to do so because of brokers were a dominant force in the mortgage industry. World Savings was supposed to telephone applicants to ensure that they understood the terms of their loan, as a check on the representations that brokers made to borrowers, but these calls reached only about half of the borrowers.<ref>{{cite web|first1=Michael|last1=Moss|accessdate= |title= Once Trusted Mortgage Pioneers, Now Scrutinized|url= http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/25/business/25sandler.html?em|website=[[The New York Times]] |date=December 4, 2008}}</ref>

== Philanthropy ==
The Sandlers helped found and were among the largest benefactors of the [[Center for Responsible Lending]], a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization fighting predatory mortgage lending, [[payday loan]]s, and other products that prey on consumers;<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/magazine/09Sandlers-t.html?ref=magazine | work=The New York Times Magazine | first=Joe | last=Nocera | title=Self-Made Philanthropists | date=March 9, 2008}}</ref> the [[Center for American Progress]], a progressive think tank; [[ProPublica]], an investigative reporting newsroom; and the [[American Asthma Foundation]].{{cn|date=July 2024}}

The Sandlers established the [[Sandler Foundation]] in 1991, which has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to various causes, primarily focusing on scientific research, civil liberties, and social justice. In 2006, the Sandlers made a contribution of $1.3 billion to the foundation, which was the second largest American charitable contribution of that year.<ref>{{cite web|title=The 2006 Slate 60: Donations|url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2007/02/the-2006-slate-60-donations.html|website=Slate|date=February 21, 2007|access-date=June 24, 2024}}</ref>

==References and notes==
{{reflist|2}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sandler, Herb}}
[[Category:1931 births]]
[[Category:2019 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American philanthropists]]
[[Category:21st-century American philanthropists]]
[[Category:American bankers]]
[[Category:American billionaires]]
[[Category:American chief executives of financial services companies]]
[[Category:City College of New York alumni]]
[[Category:Columbia Law School alumni]]
[[Category:Subprime mortgage crisis| ]]

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Herbert Sandler