Advancing Your Success: July 2008, Vol 41
President's Message
The advent of summer saw our town
and much of the Midwest fighting
rising water from overloaded lakes,
streams and rivers. Many of our
members either faced tornadoes or
floods and some communities suffered
extensive damage.
While the water may have receded,
the damage and destruction remain. We have been working with members
that have lost their facilities and
whose employees have lost their
homes. In an effort to help, the
Bank’s Board of Directors on June 19th
voted to increase our Community
Investment Advances allocation by
$250 million to help members that
need to rebuild their own facilities
and help with the rebuilding of
their communities.
FHLB Des Moines members lending in
2008 Federally Declared Disaster
Areas are eligible for Community
Investment Advances to help finance
the repair or reconstruction of
homes, businesses or infrastructure
damaged by disasters. The Bank is
waiving its per member limit which
is the greater of 15% of
non-Community Investment Advances or
$5 million, for any member borrowing
funds for a 2008 Federally Declared
Disaster Area. The maximum amount a
member may borrow will be determined
by the Bank on a case-by-case basis.
We have also been working with
members who have questions about
their collateral, who are not able
to meet certain reporting deadlines
or who are MPF ® participants that
cannot meet their delivery
commitments. We want to add our
efforts to the many institutions,
companies and individuals that have
provided assistance and will do what
we can to accommodate members facing
such difficult times.
On another front, housing
legislation pending in Congress may
change the regulatory future of FHLB
Des Moines. The House of
Representatives has already passed a
bill and the Senate recently
approved a bill that would combine
the regulation of the FHLBank System
and the other two housing
government-sponsored enterprises. There are still some procedural
actions required to reconcile the
two bills but it appears that the
housing legislation will be enacted.
While there are some beneficial
provisions in the bill, such as
raising the designation as a
“community financial institutions”
to $1 billion in assets, there is
the unknown factor of how the
FHLBanks will be regulated along
side Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. We
will keep you informed as we monitor
the future of this legislation.
And finally, we recently announced
special relief provisions for
Participating Financial Institutions
in our Mortgage Partnership Finance ®
program due to the extensive
flooding in parts of the Midwest. Please see our website for the full
announcement and the specific
instructions at
www.fhlbdm.com.
As we previously stated, we are
continuing our Mortgage Partnership
Finance ® program and continuing to
provide service to our current
Participating Financial
Institutions. We administer this
program in conjunction with the
FHLBank of Chicago and while the
Chicago Bank had notified its
members that it would stop
purchasing mortgages after July 31,
it recently extended that deadline
until October 31, 2008 as it
continued to pursue an off-balance
sheet alternative for the program.
We will host an MPF ® User’s
Conference October 22-23 in Des
Moines to help members currently
participating in the program get the
most benefit for them and their
customers.
Funding disaster assistance,
monitoring legislation, and
continuing the MPF program, are all
efforts aimed at ensuring our
members the best products and
service possible under all
circumstances.
