In the U.S., savings institutions include savings and loan associations, mutual savings banks, and credit unions. A savings institution is a financial credit institution that attracts money from the public in the form of savings deposits on which interest is paid.

The main peculiarity of American savings institutions is specialization in the market of savings of the population, focused on mass service of the contingent of people with low and middle income level. The deposits of this category of depositors form the basis of the liabilities of the savings system. Savings is a special segment of the U.S. banking market, the boundaries of which are strictly defined by government regulation.

The development of savings institutions in the United States is closely linked to the use of their assets to provide loans for housing construction. The U.S. savings system functions as a specialized network of credit institutions, whose leading function is to provide a stable mass influx of financial resources to the housing market.

Strict limitations on savings institutions reduced their ability to compete with other financial market operators. And the advantages provided by the state to the savings system did not compensate for its financial losses. In the early 1980s the savings system found itself in a severe crisis that threatened its survival. Looking for ways to survive, savings institutions began to diversify as universal banks in order to enter new markets, including by merging with more stable, mobile and flexible structures, such as bank holding companies. Most savings banks are mutual banks by form. Their depositors are not outside creditors; they are part-owners of the bank.

U.S. savings institutions have independent and separate controls from the Board of Governors and the Federal Reserve Banks. But the DIDMCA expanded the lending authority of savings institutions (to make loans to businesses and consumers) and put savings and loan associations under the control of the reserve system. Savings institutions are now subject to reserve requirements so that they can borrow from the Federal Reserve.

In recent years there has been a trend toward a change in the nature of ownership relationships with the massive conversion of mutual associations to joint stock companies. Joint-stock SSAs have more opportunities to increase fund capital. In addition to attracting deposits, they can issue shares. SSAs seek to maximize the profitability of their operations and increase their market share through advertising. They assume higher rates on savings deposits. Their rate of growth in resources and operating income is more dynamic than that of mutual associations. In a deregulated environment, however, publicly traded SSAs tend to be riskier. They are subject to higher risks of credit losses. Therefore, there are more bankruptcies among them compared to mutual associations. At the same time, mutual SSAs have higher transaction costs due to the separation of the ownership function from the management function.