ABSTRACT
No federal agency had a more tumultuous history than the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS). Like the OCC, the Federal Reserve, and the FDIC, it was founded in response to financial crisis. Unlike the others, its assigned responsibility was to prop up a segment of the banking system that had just survived an existential crisis. The solution adopted by Congress was to alter the thrift industry itself, by giving it expanded, bank-like powers, while preserving its traditional mission of fostering home ownership.
