FHLB Seattle Resumes Paying Dividends

SEATTLE – The Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle, which has been under a supervisory agreement for the past year, said Friday it will resuming pay dividends to members–albeit a small one-for the third quarter. The Seattle Bank, which has been trying to dig itself out of a $320 million hole in its hedging, said it will pay a dividend of ten cents a share, or a total of $2.2 million. The resumption of dividends comes two years after the Bank signed a rare supervisory agreement with its federal regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Board that required it to exit the secondary mortgage market and cease paying a dividend for three years, unless approved by the FHFB. “I think this shows they’re making some real progress to righting their finances,” Geoff Bacino, a member of the FHFB, told The Credit Union Journal on Saturday. The Seattle Bank reported $9.1 million in net income for the third quarter. The dividend will be paid to the Bank’s 375 members, including 45 credit unions, later this month.