FHLB Regulator Urges On CUs

WASHINGTON – Geoff Bacino, regulator of the Federal Home Loan Banks, said if credit unions want a seat at the FHLB they need to avail themselves more of the mortgage financing at the 12 regional banks. Bacino, a former NCUA Board member, used his soapbox at the FHLB regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Board, to call for more credit union participation. The housing finance regulator told 400 attendees to NAFCU’s Congressional Caucus that credit unions make up 11% of the FHLB’s more than 8,000 members, but only 3% of the banks’ mortgage financing, about $19 billion of a total of $750 billion. “You’ve got to start using the system,” said Bacino, of credit unions lobbying for seats on the 12 FHLB boards. He said low-cost FHLB financing can help credit unions expand their mortgage lending at a time when mortgage brokers and others are retreating from the market. Bacino suggested that the credit union trade groups form an FHLB interface committee, as the bank trades do, to meet with the regulators on a regular basis.