S&Ls were "dropping like flies" and this presented problems for OTS staff—declining revenues led to a declining staff. The OTS responded by marketing itself at industry meetings. At one such meeting, federal regulators were "announcing a campaign to ease regulation" and they were in a photo-op over a stack of the federal regulations—holding garden shears signaling their intent to cut through them. OTS Director James Gilleran brought a chainsaw. "Companies got the message." In 1998, OTS approved 43 charters, with more than a third going to non-banks. In 2004 Gilleran said "our goal is to allow thrifts to operate with a wide breadth of freedom from regulatory intrusion". The OTS "adopted an aggressively deregulatory stance toward the mortgage lenders it regulated... allowed the reserves the banks held as a buffer against losses to dwindle to a historic low."