 The GAO refers to the debt collection industry as "businesses that engage in the collection of debt for which the business is not the original creditor".According to ACA International, previously known as American Collectors Association, a trade group representing "collection agencies, creditors, debt buyers, collection attorneys and debt collection industry service providers", the collections industry as a whole provided over 230,000 jobs nationwide in 2013.The debt buying industry in the United States began as a result of the savings and loan crisis (S&L crisis) in which from 1986 and 1995, 1,043 out of the 3,234 American savings and loan associations, failed and hundreds of banks were closed by the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) and the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC).