BANKING INSTITUTIONS

Banking institutions include commercial banks, savings and loan associations (SLAs), savings banks, and credit unions. The major differences between these types of banks involve how they are owned and how they manage their assets and liabilities. Assets of banks are typically cash, loans, securities (bonds, but not stocks), and property in which the bank has invested. Liabilities are primarily the deposits received from the bank’s customers. They are known as liabilities because they are still owned by, and can be withdrawn by, the depositors of the financial institution.
Until the early 1980s, the assets and liabilities of banks were tightly regulated. As a result, clear distinctions existed between the activities and types of services offered by these different types of banks. Although subsequent deregulation in the 1990s blurred these distinctions, differences do remain.