Beneficial unit buys home equity loans from RTC.

Beneficial Unit Buys Home Equity Loans from RTC

Beneficial National Bank said Wednesday it purchased a $32 million portfolio of home equity loans from the Resolution Trust Corp.

The bank, a unit of Beneficial Corp., paid $33.8 million for the portfolio, a spokesman for the RTC said. That translates into a premium of 5.5% for most of the loans.

The purchase brings to $59 million the portfolio at the Delaware-based bank of credit card loans backed by home equity.

The portfolio, all of which was purchased from the RTC, is made up of credit card receivables representing drawdowns on home equity lines of credit.

Beneficial National, which has $310 million in assets, is actively expanding its consumer loan holdings.

"We have been interested in expanding through acquisitions for some time now," said a company spokesman.

Similar Purchase Last Year

Last November the bank purchased from the government agency $30 million in credit card receivables backed by home equity.

The new purchase represents 2,100 accounts originated at Southwest Savings and Loan of Phoenix.

The receivables are backed by real estate in the metropolitan Phoenix area. The average account balance is $16,000 on an average line of credit of $28,000.

Beneficial Corp., in addition to owning Beneficial National Bank, has two subsidiaries that issue and service private-label credit cards.

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