---
alias:
- Lincoln Savings & Loan
- Lincoln Savings
- Lincoln Savings and Loan Association
category: Private Organization
created: 2026-09-23
end: 1989
location: Irvine, California, USA
relations:
- end: 1989
  fn: 1
  reverse: true
  start: 1984
  type: owned
  with: '[[American Continental Corporation]]'
- fn: 1
  reverse: true
  role: San Francisco office examination
  start: 1986-03
  type: investigated
  with: '[[Federal Home Loan Bank Board]]'
summary: Irvine, California savings and loan bought in 1984 by Charles Keating's American
  Continental Corporation and seized in April 1989; its failure cost taxpayers more
  than three billion dollars.
tags:
- Organization
- SavingsAndLoan
- KeatingFive
- Fraud
updated: 2026-09-23
---

Lincoln Savings and Loan Association was a savings institution based in Irvine, California. American Continental Corporation, the Phoenix homebuilder headed by [Charles Keating](/people/charles-keating/), bought it in 1984 for 51 million dollars, and federal regulators took it over in April 1989.[^1][^2]

### Growth

Rather than write mortgages, Lincoln under Keating grew tenfold by soliciting large deposits from Wall Street brokerages in exchange for fees, and invested them in high-yield junk bonds and in real estate development by American Continental, including The Phoenician resort in Scottsdale.[^1] Its reported growth differs by source: its assets quadrupled in three years to 3.9 billion dollars according to United Press International, and rose from 1.1 billion to 5.5 billion dollars in four years according to NBC News.[^2][^3] Alan Greenspan, later chairman of the [Federal Reserve](/organizations/federal-reserve-board/), wrote a report stating that Lincoln was sound and had "seasoned and expert" managers.[^2] L. William Seidman, who led the government's cleanup of the industry, later wrote that Lincoln "simply exchanged interest-rate risks for much greater asset quality risks," and called The Phoenician "a monument to Keating's ego."[^1]

### Regulators and the Keating Five

The [San Francisco](/places/san-francisco/) office of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board opened an investigation of Lincoln's growth in March 1986. Senators Alan Cranston, [Dennis DeConcini](/people/dennis-deconcini/), John Glenn, Donald Riegle and John McCain, who had received a combined 1.3 million dollars in donations and gifts from Keating, his family and his companies, met officials of the bank board on Lincoln's behalf. In May 1987 the San Francisco regulators recommended seizing Lincoln for unsound lending, but M. Danny Wall, successor to the board's chairman Edwin Gray, said there was insufficient proof to justify a seizure. Lincoln was taken over in April 1989, after Keating placed American Continental in bankruptcy, and the Resolution Trust Corporation later sold a majority interest in The Phoenician among Lincoln's assets.[^1]

### Bonds and Cost

According to NBC News, Keating "allegedly fleeced Lincoln customers by selling them $200 million of unsecured 'junk' bonds," which became useless when his company went bankrupt; he was convicted in California of misleading investors into buying bonds that were not federally insured.[^1][^3] The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation put the cost of Lincoln's failure to taxpayers at 3.14 billion dollars; NBC News, citing *[The New York Times](/organizations/new-york-times/)*, gave 3.4 billion.[^1][^3]

### BCCI

The Senate report on the [Bank of Credit and Commerce International](/organizations/bank-of-credit-and-commerce-international/) (BCCI) listed among matters requiring further investigation "The financial dealings of BCCI directors with Charles Keating and several Keating affiliates and front-companies," naming the BCCI director Alfred Hartman, [David L. Paul](/people/david-l-paul/) and [CenTrust Savings Bank](/organizations/centrust-savings-bank/), Larry Romrell of [Capcom](/organizations/capcom/), the [Gokal brothers](/people/gokal-brothers/) and possibly [Ghaith R. Pharaon](/people/ghaith-r-pharaon/), and stated that "The ties between BCCI and Keating's financial empire require further investigation." It grouped these ties with BCCI's involvement in CenTrust and in Caprock Savings and Loan of Texas under "BCCI's collusion in Savings & Loan fraud in the U.S."[^4]

[^1]: "Charles Keating, Face of Savings and Loan Bust, Dies at 90." *American Banker,* April 2, 2014. https://www.americanbanker.com/news/charles-keating-face-of-savings-and-loan-bust-dies-at-90
[^2]: Burns, Frances. "Charles Keating Jr., who became face of savings and loan scandal, dies at 90." United Press International, April 2, 2014. https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2014/04/02/Charles-Keating-Jr-who-became-face-of-savings-and-loan-scandal-dies-at-90/5631396444559/
[^3]: Arkin, Daniel. "Charles Keating, Center of Savings and Loan Scandal, Dies at 90." NBC News, April 2, 2014. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/charles-keating-center-savings-loan-scandal-dies-90-n69386
[^4]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, Appendices, "Matters for Further Investigation," items 8 and 12. https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/24appendic.htm