Under the Sandlers' management, Golden West generated a 19 percent average annual compound growth in earnings per share over a 39-year period.
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".
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.
[13] 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.
[14] The Sandlers helped found and are among the largest benefactors of the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization fighting predatory mortgage lending, payday loans, and other products that prey on consumers;[15] the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank; ProPublica, an investigative reporting newsroom; and the American Asthma Foundation.