The S&L crisis culminated in the collapse of hundreds of savings & loan institutions and the insolvency of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, which cost taxpayers many billions of dollars and contributed to the recession of 1990–91.

Savings institutions (also called savings & loans or savings banks) specialize in real estate financing. They can be either a corporation or mutual (a type of business where making a deposit is like purchasing stock in the organization).

In the first case, depositors and borrowers own the S&L under a mutual ownership model. In the second case, shareholders own the S&L under a stock ownership model ruled by a charter. S&L associations may be chartered at either the state or federal level.

Born during the Great Depression, these cooperative-like financial institutions specialized in offering mortgages for residential properties. While nowhere near as commonplace today, S&Ls still exist, primarily to extend financing to homebuyers.