A savings institution is a savings association or savings bank: a deposit-taking lender whose charter grew out of home mortgage lending.
Federal law names two kinds. A savings association is a federal savings association, a state savings association, or a company the regulators find is run in substantially the same way. A federal savings association is one chartered under the Home Owners’ Loan Act (12 U.S.C. 1464). A savings bank is a bank that does its ordinary business strictly as a savings bank under state laws with special rules for such banks. People also say “thrift” or “savings and loan” for the group.
For a borrower the difference from a commercial bank is mostly history and habit. These lenders grew up making home mortgages, and many still hold a large share of their loans in real estate: houses, apartment buildings and small commercial properties. That makes them worth a look for a multifamily or small investor property loan, and often less likely for an unsecured business line.
Do not assume. Some savings institutions now lend like any commercial bank. Look at what the one in front of you holds.
How it shows up in the data here
Lender type on every FDIC row is set from the FDIC's charter class field. This site groups the savings classes as "Savings institution", apart from "Bank". Search savings institutions to list them, then filter by state or loan type. Their balances held by loan type come from the same call report that banks file.
Go further
- Search savings institutions: Savings associations and savings banks, by state and loan type.
- Multifamily lenders: Lenders holding or making apartment loans.
- How to pick banks for a deal with public data: Public filings cannot tell you which bank will say yes. They can tell you which banks are large enough, already hold loans like yours and lend where the property is. That is enough to turn four thousand banks into six phone calls.
- How to place a commercial loan with a bank: A bank loan moves through the same stages every time. Knowing them tells you what the bank needs at each point, what its answer means, and where time is lost.
Related terms
- Community bank: A community bank is a smaller bank that takes deposits and lends mostly in the area around its offices, and decides on loans close to home.
- Portfolio lender: A portfolio lender is a lender that keeps the loans it makes on its own books instead of selling them to an investor.
- Call report: The financial report every bank and savings association files with its federal regulator each quarter, with a balance sheet, an income statement and schedules that break out loans by kind.
- FDIC certificate number: The unique number the FDIC assigns to each bank and savings institution, used to identify it in FDIC records.
- Multifamily (5+ units): Residential rental property with five or more units. Banks, credit unions and HMDA all draw the line between four units and five.
Sources
Plain definitions for orientation, not legal, tax or credit advice. A lender's own policy decides what it will do.