The Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBanks, or FHLBank System) are 11 U.S. government-sponsored banks that provide liquidity to the members of

financial institutions Financial institutions, sometimes called banking institutions, are business entities that provide services as intermediaries for different types of financial monetary transactions. Broadly speaking, there are three major types of financial insti ...

to support housing finance and community investment.

Overview

The FHLBank System was chartered by Congress in 1932, during the Great Depression. It has a primary mission of providing member financial institutions with financial products/services which assist and enhance the financing of housing and community lending. The 11 FHLBanks are each structured as cooperatives owned and governed by their member financial institutions, which today include

savings and loan association A savings and loan association (S&L), or thrift institution, is a financial institution that specializes in accepting savings deposits and making mortgage and other loans. The terms "S&L" or "thrift" are mainly used in the United States; simi ...

s (thrifts),

commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution which accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make profit. It can also refer to a bank, or a division of a large bank, which deals with co ...

credit union A credit union, a type of financial institution similar to a commercial bank, is a member-owned nonprofit financial cooperative. Credit unions generally provide services to members similar to retail banks, including deposit accounts, provisi ...

s and insurance companies. Each FHLBank is required to register at least one class of equity with the SEC, although their debt is not registered. Federal home loan bank Atlanta

A benefit of FHLBank membership is access to liquidity through secured

loans In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that de ...

, known as advances, which are funded by the FHLBanks in the capital markets from the issuance of discount notes or term debt, collectively known as consolidated obligations (COs). COs are joint and several obligations of all the FHLBanks, i.e., any debt issued on behalf of one FHLBank is the responsibility of all for repayment, with the issuing FHLBank having the primary responsibility. The Office of Finance (OF) serves as the fiscal agent for the FHLBanks, with responsibility for offering, issuing and servicing COs, as well as preparing the combined financial reports. Although the individual FHLBanks are SEC registrants, the FHLBank System is not. Thus, the FHLBank System financial reports are “combined” rather than “consolidated.”

Ownership

The 11 banks of the FHLBank System are owned by over 7,300 regulated financial institutions from all 50 states, U.S. possessions, and territories. Equity in the FHLBanks is held by these owner/members and is not publicly traded. Institutions must purchase stock in order to become a member. In return, members obtain access to funding, and also receive dividends based on their stock ownership. The FHLBanks are self-capitalizing in that as members seek to increase their borrowing, they must first purchase additional stock to support the activity. FHLBanks are exempt from corporate federal, state, and local taxation, except for local real estate tax. The capital investments in FHLBanks receive preferential risk-weighting exemption treatment from the Basel II rules (which would normally require non-traded equity investments to be risk-weighted at 400%, but the exemption allows only 100%). The FHLBanks pay an assessment of 10% of annual earnings for affordable housing programs. The mission of the FHLBanks reflects a public purpose (increase access to housing and aid communities by extending credit to member financial institutions), but all 11 are privately capitalized and, apart from the tax privileges, do not receive taxpayer assistance.

Financial results and condition

Since August 2006, all 11 banks have been registered with the

United States Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against marke ...

and all financial statements and other filings are available to the public at the SEC web site (EDGAR). On August 5, 2011, the

Federal Housing Finance Agency The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is an independent federal agency in the United States created as the successor regulatory agency of the Federal Housing Finance Board (FHFB), the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), ...

announced that the FHLBanks had satisfied their obligation to make payments related to the Resolution Funding Corporation (RefCorp) bonds. The Banks were required to pay 20 percent of their net income (after payments to the Affordable Housing Program) toward the RefCorp bond payments. Each Bank now pays 20% of its net income into its own separate restricted retained earnings account until the account equals one percent of that Bank's outstanding consolidated obligations. At December 31, 2014, each of the FHLBanks was in compliance with its statutory minimum capital requirements and the FHLBank System as a whole was above its minimum capital requirements. On March 27, 2015, the FHLBanks Office of Finance published the 2014 Combined Financial Report.http://www.fhlb-of.com/ofweb_userWeb/resources/2014Q4Document-web.pdf For 2014, the FHLBanks recorded net income of $2,245 million. Combined assets of the FHLBanks were $913.3 billion as of December 31, 2014. Of this total, advances equaled $571 billion. Investments were the second largest component at $267 billion. Mortgage loans held for portfolio were $44 billion. The FHLBanks made affordable housing contributions of $269 million in 2014. The principal assets of the FHLBanks are advances (secured loans to members), mortgage loans held for portfolio, and other investments. The FHLBanks are required by regulation to hold collateral in excess of the actual loan amount for any given borrower. The FHLBanks are funded through the daily sale of debt securities in the global capital markets. All 11 FHLBanks are jointly and severally liable for the liabilities of each individual FHLBank.

History

As a result of the Great Depression the FHLBanks were established by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) pursuant to the Federal Home Loan Bank Act of 1932. This was in order to provide funds to "building and loan" institutions, providing liquidity and making mortgages available. Initially, the FHLBanks made direct loans to home owners, but transferred this responsibility to the

Home Owners' Loan Corporation The Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) was a government-sponsored corporation created as part of the New Deal. The corporation was established in 1933 by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation Act under the leadership of President Franklin D. Ro ...

when it was created the following year. As a result of the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) abolished the FHLBB and transferred oversight responsibility of the FHLBanks to the Federal Housing Finance Board (FHFB) and regulatory responsibility to the

Office of Thrift Supervision The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) was a United States federal agency under the Department of the Treasury that chartered, supervised, and regulated all federally chartered and state-chartered savings banks and savings and loans associatio ...

(OTS) in the Department of the Treasury. FIRREA also allowed all federally insured depository institutions to join the FHLBank System, including commercial banks and credit unions. As a result of the late-2000s financial crisis the

Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 The United States Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 () (commonly referred to as HERA) was designed primarily to address the subprime mortgage crisis. It authorized the Federal Housing Administration to guarantee up to $300 billion in ne ...

(HERA) replaced the FHFB with the

(FHFA). The

Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

was authorized to purchase FHLBank debt securities in any amount through December 31, 2009, after which the limit would return to the original $4 billion. On September 7, 2008, the U.S. Treasury announced a new credit facility for the three housing government-sponsored enterprises. This enabled the Secretary of the Treasury to purchase FHLBank debt in any amount subject to the pledging of advances and other assets as collateral. The authority for this facility expired on December 31, 2009. As a result of the late-2000s recession, section 312 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act mandated merger of OTS with the

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is an independent bureau within the United States Department of the Treasury that was established by the National Currency Act of 1863 and serves to charter, regulate, and supervise all natio ...

(OCC), the

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is one of two agencies that supply deposit insurance to depositors in American depository institutions, the other being the National Credit Union Administration, which regulates and insures cr ...

(FDIC), the

Federal Reserve Board of Governors The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, commonly known as the Federal Reserve Board, is the main governing body of the Federal Reserve System. It is charged with overseeing the Federal Reserve Banks and with helping implement the m ...

, and the

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is an agency of the United States government responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector. CFPB's jurisdiction includes banks, credit unions, securities firms, payday lenders, mo ...

(CFPB) as of July 21, 2011.

Related legislation

* To amend the Federal Home Loan Bank Act to authorize privately insured credit unions to become members of a Federal home loan bank (H.R. 3584; 113th Congress) - a bill that would amend the Federal Home Loan Bank Act to treat certain privately insured credit unions as insured depository institutions for purposes of determining eligibility for membership in a federal home loan bank. This change would make such credit unions "eligible for membership in the Federal Home Loan Bank System."

References

External links

Council of FHLBanksFHLBanks Office of FinanceFederal Housing Finance AgencySEC filings from the FHLBanks

Banks

Federal Home Loan Bank of AtlantaFederal Home Loan Bank of BostonFederal Home Loan Bank of ChicagoFederal Home Loan Bank of CincinnatiFederal Home Loan Bank of DallasFederal Home Loan Bank of Des MoinesFederal Home Loan Bank of IndianapolisFederal Home Loan Bank of New YorkFederal Home Loan Bank of PittsburghFederal Home Loan Bank of San FranciscoFederal Home Loan Bank of Topeka

{{Authority control FHLB Mortgage industry of the United States