Federal Home Loan Bank System


Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Acronyms, Wikipedia.

Federal Home Loan Bank System

A system of 12 American banks whose purpose is to provide low-cost loans for mortgages, businesses, and urban and rural economic development. The FHLB is not publicly traded, but rather is owned by several thousand banks and other financial institutions. These institutions buy stock in the system in order to become eligible for subsidized loans, which they then make to high-risk customers. Established in 1932 during the Great Depression, the FHLB largely succeeded in its original purposes of putting people in affordable homes. However, in the late 2000s, the FHLB began to have cash flow problems due in part to overexposure to the housing bubble and became the largest borrower from the United States government.

Federal Home Loan Bank System (FHLBS)

A government-sponsored enterprise established in 1932 to improve the supply of funds to lenders, including credit unions, thrifts, banks, and insurance companies that finance loans for home mortgages. With an AAA credit rating the system is able to borrow funds at relatively low cost and pass the savings through to borrowers in the housing market.
Mentioned in ?
References in periodicals archive ?
Q: Will a consolidation among community banks affect their overall role in the Federal Home Loan Bank system?
Q&A with Richard Dorfman, president and CEO, Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta: the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, along with the 11 other regional home loan banks, has been providing needed liquidity to the market during the credit crisis. But even these conservative institutions are facing large potential write-downs on private-label MBS
Gramm-Leach-Bliley included provisions that further displace support for the financing of owner-occupied houses as the singular public purpose of the Federal Home Loan Bank System. The statute permits community financial institutions--defined as FDIC-insured institutions with under $500 million in assets--to join a Federal Home Loan Bank even if they do not have 10 percent of their assets in housing.
What are the Federal Home Loan Banks up to? Emerging views of purpose among institutional leadership
(22.) THE FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANK SYSTEM, 1932-1952, supra note 10, at 56-57.
The cooperative structure of the Federal Home Loan Banks: a model for government sponsored enterprises?
* Capital Structure of the Federal Home Loan Bank System, GAO/GGD-99-177R, published by the U.S.
Financial Deja vu? The Farm Credit System's past woes could strike the Federal Home Loan Bank System. (Banking & Finance)
(5.) At that time, the Federal Home Loan Bank System consisted of 12 Banks (similar in charter and organization to the 12 Federal Reserve Banks), the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (similar to the FDIC), the Home Owners Loan Corporation, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (analogous to the Federal Reserve Board) to oversee the System, and charter federal savings and loans (equivalent to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency).
Two Deposit Insurance Funds Are Not Necessarily Better than One
A: I believe that any regulatory restructuring of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae must also include the Federal Home Loan Bank System. We have a unique opportunity to improve the regulatory regime of the housing GSEs, and it would be irresponsible not to include the Federal Home Loan Banks.
Two views
See Federal Housing Finance Board, "Effect of Federal Home Loan Bank System District Banks on the Housing Finance System in Rural Areas" (FHFB, April 23, 1993).
Residential lending to low-income and minority families: evidence from the 1992 HMDA data
There are two types of housing GSEs: Fannie Mac and Freddie Mac (the secondary market institutions that buy loans from qualified mortgage originators), and the Federal Home Loan Bank System (a dozen banks that make belowmarket-rate loans available to mortgage lenders that belong to the system).
Gearing up for another fight
A regional bank included in the Federal Home Loan Bank System, FHLBank Indianapolis is owned by its Indiana and Michigan financial institution members, which include commercial banks, credit unions, insurance companies, savings institutions and community development financial institutions.
Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis declares dividends, announces fiscal results
He mentioned that certified CDFIs can become members of the Federal Home Loan Bank System and access its lower-cost funds, as permitted under recent legislation.
Fed's Bernanke says systemic change can strengthen CDFIs
SOURCES: Federal Home Loan Bank System, Quarterly Financial Report, September 30, 2002; and annual reports.
Federal Home Loan Banks

Financial browser ?
Full browser ?