Safety and Soundness: The Office of Thrift Supervision

The man who is starting Common Good Bank mentioned that US banks are regulated by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS),which I learned "is the primary regulator of all federally chartered and many state-chartered thrift institutions, which include savings banks and savings and loan associations. OTS was established as a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury on August 9, 1989, and has four regional offices located in Jersey City, Atlanta, Dallas, and San Francisco. OTS is funded by assessments and fees levied on the institutions it regulates."

I will try to print the Examination Handbook, "a comprehensive handbook that combines safety and soundness and compliance guidance." I'm hoping that will clearly explain things like where a bank can invest (i.e. can it do currency speculation), what constitutes a "safe and sound" bank, what a bank has to do to satisfy the Community Reinvestment Act, how much it needs to invest locally...

I am also downloading the 24 page text of the CRA, available at this link.