Those boards each govern three regional subsidiaries--the Banks for Cooperatives, as well as the Federal Land Banks and the
Federal Intermediate Credit Banks, which oversee the Production Credit Associations (P.C.A.).
Hoover described his hopes for the new GSE in his official signing statement: "[The RFC Act] brings into being a powerful organization with adequate resources, able to strengthen weaknesses that may develop in our credit, banking, and railway structure, in order to permit business and industry to carry on normal activities free from the fear of unexpected shocks and retarding influences." (131) In its final form, the act gave the RFC the authority to lend to a broad set of financial intermediaries, including government-sponsored enterprises like the Federal Land Banks and Federal Intermediate Credit Banks, as well as to railroads, on a wide range of collateral.
(58) By the time Herbert Hoover assumed the presidency in 1929, Congress had created three government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) that either directly or indirectly targeted frictions in agricultural credit markets: (1) the Farm Land Banks, (2) the War Finance Corporation, and (3) the Federal Intermediate Credit Banks. The creation of these enterprises reflected the congressional view that perceived dysfunction in the credit markets warranted targeted government intervention.
