World Savings Bank was a Savings and Loan company headquartered in Oakland until its purchase by Wachovia Bank. The holding company under which is stock was traded was known as "Golden West Financial". The company was ran by a husband and wife CEO team.
It had what was considered to be a minimalist business model whereby it focused on attracting deposits via CD's and high interest saving accounts and making home loans from those deposits, as opposed to selling the loans after they are made as bonds as did most banks (also eschewing other lines of business such as business lending, investment management etc.). To do this profitably however it had to emphasize adjustable rate loans as opposed to fixed rate loans which would have been much less profitable, and had to resort to having ever more exotic features and underwriting to attract people to those loans as opposed to fixed loans (such as offering negative amortization loans). By growing organically (that is without buying many other banks) and not encountering significant losses until the Subprime mortgage crash, the company earned a higher return for its stockholders than any other bank and nearly any other major company over the same time frame until it was sold to Wachovia. The failure of these loans however brought Wachovia to its knees and caused it to be put up for sale to Citigroup and eventually to the higher bidder Wells Fargo.
If I remember right, there was a branch at the corner of Lakeshore and Trestle Glen
