savings and loan

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savings and loan

n. a banking and lending institution, chartered either by a state or the Federal government. Savings and loans only make loans secured by real property from deposits, upon which they pay interest slightly higher than that paid by most banks. In the early 1980s savings and loans were "de-regulated," allowing them to make loans for speculative land development, removing high reserve funds requirements, and in allowing savings and loans' funds to participate in competition with banks. The result was use of many savings and loans for speculative and dishonest investments, lack of controls, and tremendous losses to thousands of depositors. However, a properly-managed, conservative savings and loan which concentrates on real estate loans guaranteed by the FHA (Federal Housing Administration) and/or sold in the secondary mortgage market can be safe, profitable, and provide a valuable channel for savings into the home finance market.

References in periodicals archive ?

The business grew rich with characters like Don Dixon of Dallas's Vernon Savings and Loan, a builder who used federally insured deposits to buy six Lear jets, a yacht, a mansion, $5 million in art, and prostitutes to "entertain" customers.

Move over, Charles Keating

I predict that the savings and loan of the future will be a quasi-mortgage banker, selling its product directly to other lenders or a community bank.

Black ink at last for the thrifts

Although previously tolerated as an improper but innocuous part of the real estate game, it is now becoming clear that bogus appraisals were a major cause of the collapse of EPIC, as well as hundreds of savings and loans and banks such as Continental Illinois, the largest failure of all.

Banking on unreal estate - the appraisal scam

Another step recommended by the President, to which we attach great importance, is the requirement that savings and loan associations that do not meet the qualified thrift lender (QTL) test (60 percent of assets in residential-related lending) in the Competitive Equality Banking Act of 1987 must, after an appropriate transition period, become banks and be subject to the entire regulatory and supervisory regime applicable to banks and their holding companies.