savings and loan association

American  

noun

1. a cooperative savings institution, chartered and regulated by a state or the federal government, that receives deposits in exchange for shares of ownership and invests its funds chiefly in loans secured by first mortgages on homes. S&L, S and L

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savings and loan association British  

noun

1. a US name for a building society

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savings and loan association Cultural  

1. A financial institution that resembles a bank but that historically did not offer services such as personal checking accounts and that invested capital mainly in home mortgages. In the late 1970s, Congress passed legislation freeing savings and loan associations (often called S&Ls) from their traditional dependency on home mortgage loans. In response, S&Ls invested their capital, often unwisely, in a range of enterprises, especially real estate. In the late 1980s, hundreds of S&Ls went bankrupt, leaving the federal government, which insured the accounts of depositors, with an enormous bill. Since then they have been subject to tighter regulation.

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Example Sentences

Bush’s six children, was an outside director at a failed savings and loan association that came under scrutiny of federal regulators in the 1990s.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 20, 2023

Mr. Kaplinsky was searching for solutions when he remembered helping, as a young lawyer, a mutual savings and loan association draft an arbitration clause, he said in an interview.

From New York Times • Oct. 31, 2015

The link was Washington Mutual or WaMu, a bank that had grown into the country's largest savings and loan association over the prior decade before collapsing in the weeks before the letters were sent out.

From Slate • Jan. 30, 2012

The trial revolved around Mr. McCann’s 1986 partnership with a Florida savings and loan association to develop a marina in Liberty State Park.

From New York Times • Oct. 8, 2011

The secretary has for some time been in charge of the office of a savings and loan association and is the only woman member of the Indianapolis fire insurance inspection board.

From The Cost of Shelter by Richards, Ellen H.