Unitary Thrift
Categories: Banking
A “unitary thrift” is an organization that owns a single thrift. Maybe we’ve also heard them referred to as SLHCs, or savings and loan holding companies.
What’s a thrift? It’s a (mostly) noncommercial bank, generally speaking. Thrifts specialize in personal checking and savings accounts, residential mortgages, individual lines of credit, stuff like that. They tend to have a little more latitude in how they operate than big commercial banks, which is why holding companies like to own them: it's the only way they can engage in certain banking functions.
Fun fact about unitary thrifts, though: it’s nearly impossible to create one nowadays, thanks to the 2008 financial crisis, and all the new rules and regulations it spawned.
