Savings Association Insurance Fund

Savings Association Insurance Fund (SAIF)

A government organization that replaced the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation as the provider of deposit insurance for thrift institutions.

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Savings Association Insurance Fund

A pool of money created in 1989 by the FDIC to insure deposits made in savings and loan associations (or thrifts). The SAIF was created to separate thrift insurance money from regular bank insurance money (which came from the Bank Insurance Fund). While this was likely beneficial for a time because of the savings and loan crisis, it created a perverse incentive for banks and thrifts to reclassify themselves as the other (i.e., a bank to a thrift or a thrift to a bank), depending on which fund had lower fees. This led to the passage of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act of 2005, which abolished the Savings Association Insurance Fund and the Bank Insurance Fund and created a single Deposit Insurance Fund.

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Savings Association Insurance Fund (SAIF)

The federal fund that insures deposits at savings and loan associations. SAIF was created in 1989 as a successor to the Federal Savings & Loan Insurance Corporation and is administered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.