was george bailey just a subprime lender?
https://consumerist.com/2008/12/24/was-george-bailey-just-a-subprime-lender/
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The Savings and Loan industry existed as a viable business segment, parallel to consumer and commercial banks. They began to face competition in the 1960's and marginal ones closed, others were taken over by characters closer to Potter than Bailey. The infamous case of one in real life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_Guaranty will tell a lot about their near extinction. Few remain today.
The later financial crisis in the 2000's on subprime lending was related to reselling the loans so that original lender had little incentive to check the ability of the borrower to repay the loan - an entirely different concern from that of Potter and Bailey who did not resell their loans.