Resolution Trust Corporation
The Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) was a U.S. government-owned asset management company run by Lewis William Seidman and charged with liquidating assets, primarily real estate-related assets such as mortgage loans, that had been assets of savings and loan associations (S&Ls) declared insolvent by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) as a consequence of the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. It also took over the insurance functions of the former Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB).
RTC literature in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation history exhibit
Lewis William Seidman was an American economist, financial commentator, and former head of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, best known for his role in helping work to correct the Savings and Loan Crisis in the American financial sector from 1988 to 1991 as head of the Resolution Trust Corporation. He also worked as an economic adviser during three separate administrations of United States presidents: Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. He was lauded by both Republicans and Democrats for his work in cleaning up the frauds of the Savings and Loan disaster, but was pushed out of American government by the George H.W. Bush administration for disclosing the full extent of the crisis to the United States Congress and taxpayers.
President Gerald Ford and staff review a draft of his address to the Nation on recommendations for tax reduction and spending, to be delivered that evening. Clockwise: President Ford, Economic Affairs Assistant L. William Seidman, OMB Director James Thomas Lynn, OMB Deputy Director Paul H. O'Neill, Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) Chairman Alan Greenspan, Deputy Assistant to the President for White House Operations Dick Cheney, Assistant to the President for White House Operations