A
savings and loan association (
S&L), or
thrift institution, is a
financial institution that specializes in accepting
savings deposits and making
mortgage and other loans. The terms "
S&L" or "
thrift" are mainly used in the
United States; similar institutions in the
United Kingdom,
Ireland and some
Commonwealth countries include
building societies and
trustee savings banks. They are often
mutually held (often called
mutual savings banks), meaning that the depositors and borrowers are members with voting rights, and have the ability to direct the financial and managerial goals of the organization like the members of a
credit union or the policyholders of a
mutual insurance company. While it is possible for an S&L to be a
joint-stock company, and even publicly traded, in such instances it is no longer truly a mutual association, and depositors and borrowers no longer have membership rights and managerial control. By law, thrifts can have no more than 20 percent of their lending in commercial loans — their focus on mortgage and consumer loans makes them particularly vulnerable to
housing downturns such as the deep one the U.S. has experienced since 2007.