Office of Thrift Supervision

Office of Thrift Supervision
Agency overview
Formed9 August 1989
Preceding agency
Dissolved21 July 2011
Superseding agency
HeadquartersWashington, D.C.
Employees1024 (2007)
Annual budgetUS$250 million (2008)
Agency executive
Parent agencyDepartment of the Treasury
Websitehttp://www.ots.treas.gov/

The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) was a United States federal agency under the Department of the Treasury that chartered, supervised, and regulated all federally chartered and state-chartered savings banks and savings and loans associations. It was created in 1989 as a renamed version of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, another federal agency (that was faulted for its role in the savings and loan crisis). Like other U.S. federal bank regulators, it was paid by the banks it regulated. The OTS was initially seen as an aggressive regulator, but was later lax. Declining revenues and staff led the OTS to market itself to companies as a lax regulator in order to get revenue.

The OTS also expanded its oversight to companies that were not banks. Some of the companies that failed under OTS supervision during the financial crisis of 2007–2010 include American International Group (AIG), Washington Mutual, and IndyMac.

The OTS was implicated in a backdating scandal regarding the balance sheet of IndyMac. Section 312 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act dissolved the OTS, transferring its functions to other agencies.