What Is A Savings And Loan Association

The moment when one man traded goods with another an economy was born. As centuries past this evolved in the trading of goods for precious metals and further evolved into the trading of goods for bank notes and in the best forex trading market that we have today.
Currency is one of man's greatest inventions. Because of this complex financial concepts are now reality when in the past they can only be hypothesized by ancient scholars. Banks are familiar to all if for no other reason than the fact that we all have ATM cards and without such cards modern life in a large municipality would be impossible. But what is a savings and loan association?
Savings and loan associations and mutual savings banks are commonly called thrift institutions. This may sound like an old-fashioned term but the role that they play in our financial system is more relevant than ever. They obtain most of their funds by issuing checking accounts, savings accounts, and a variety of consumer time deposits. They use these funds to purchase real estate loans consisting primarily of long-term mortgages. They are the largest provider of residential mortgage loans to consumers. In addition they are now allowed to make a limited number of consumer and business loans. In effect, thrifts specialize in maturity and denomination intermediation because they borrow small amounts of money short term with checking and savings accounts and lend long term on real estate collateral but they cannot offer advice in the form of forex trading tips. Then the FDIC insures deposits in thrifts in amounts up to $100,000.
In this sense a savings and loan association is similar to a bank. They can provide the financial services required by the working-class citizens. They can also provide loans to those who would otherwise have difficulty in obtaining financing. So while they might seem to some degree passé when compared to the high-tech commercial banks that dominate Wall Street they are still needed by the average Joe who collectively form the backbone of the nation.