Office of Thrift Supervision

About the OTS

The OTS supervises a national thrift industry that is built on the bedrock of the American dream of homeownership—supplying affordable home financing for Americans from all walks of life.

The industry has a long history dating back to 1831 with the establishment of the first savings association, the Oxford Provident Building Association, which made home loans and offered savings accounts. Today, the charter is a vibrant, sophisticated model for running a retail financial services business.

Home mortgages remain a staple of the thrift industry. However, the array of financial products and services offered by many institutions and their holding companies paint a modern-day portrait of great diversification within the industry based on size, complexity, and business strategy.

Three unique advantages of the federal thrift charter foster this diversification:

• Branching – The thrift charter offers institutions a distinctive capability to branch nationwide, without restriction or condition, under a single charter.

• Consolidated Supervision – The thrift charter is unique because savings and loan holding companies and their thrift subsidiaries can operate under the consolidated regulatory supervision of a single federal regulator - the OTS.

• Uniform Regulatory Framework – Uniform federal laws under the thrift charter require safe and sound operations, and appropriate consumer protections, without subjecting insitutions to the wide array of different or conflicting state and local statues.

The thrift charter is employed by some of the largest financial enterprises in the world, as well as small, one-office savings associations. Financial institutions from across the nation and a number of international financial firms have found that the thrift charter and the experienced, responsive workforce of the OTS provide an ideal framework for conducting retail banking operations and related financial services activities. The charter enables these institutions to meet the needs of their customers and to innovate effectively, compete, and prosper in today’s fast-paced financial marketplace.