Washington, DC – The Coalition for Federal Home Loan Bank Reform (CFR), a broad coalition that is focused on reform of the Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBanks), today applauded the FHFA’s November 7, 2023, release of its report, The FHLBanks at 100. The report is the first comprehensive review of the Federal Home Loan Banks in their ninety-one-year history.
CFR founding members made the following remarks:
Don Layton, former CEO of Freddie Mac: “The FHLBank system, in nearly a century of changing markets, has moved far away from its original public policy purpose. In particular, the large subsidy it receives from the taxpayers goes far too much to big banks, rather than the community institutions the FHLBanks were historically intended to serve.”
The Reverend Luis Cortes, Co-founder and President of Esperanza, Inc., a nonprofit CDC serving the low-income minority community of Hunting Park in North Philadelphia: “FHFA Director Sandra Thompson’s leadership initiating the first-ever comprehensive review of the FHLBanks’ mission is timely. In 1932, homeless families lived in shanty towns that became known as Hoovervilles. FHLBanks were established to create liquidity for housing. That statutory mission has become an after-thought to address that crisis. 90 years later Hoovervilles are arising again with the homeless living in cars, in tents and worse. This rental housing crisis will not wait to ruin lives, disrupt families, and weaken low-income minority communities across the country. We need reform now.”
Sharon Cornelissen, Director of Housing, Consumer Federation of America (CFA): “We applaud the FHFA for publishing this timely report examining how the FHLBank system can be reformed to better fulfill its public mission of supporting affordable housing. We believe reform is especially crucial seeing today’s housing crisis, where millions of Americans are priced out from buying their first home, and Black and Hispanic families continue to own homes at much lower rates than white families. The FHLBank system can do so much more to address these dire needs.”
Michael Stegman, former Treasury and White House senior housing finance policy advisor: “Congratulations to FHFA Director Thompson for starting the journey to comprehensive housing finance reform by returning the FHLBank system to its historical mission of providing liquidity to its member institutions for the sole purpose of expanding the supply of affordable mortgage credit for American families.”
Bruce Morrison, Chairman, Morrison Public Affairs Group, former Chairman, Federal Housing Finance Board, former Member of Congress: “The FHLBs need a reformed mission focus. Their products should promote equitable access to affordable housing and community development. Most of what they do now does not meet that test.”
The Coalition for Federal Home Loan Bank Reform is a non-partisan organization that brings together a wide variety of stakeholders to discuss, educate and shape reform of the FHLB system. Organizational affiliations are for identification purposes only.