WASHINGTON - (09/01/04) The Federal Home Loan Bank ofSeattle has petitione dits federal regulator to begin buying andselling mortgage-backed securities from its members, a proposalwhich, if joined by others of the 12 regional FHLBs, could addsignificant liquidity to the market for MSBs. Under the proposal,submitted to the Federal Housing Finance Board, regulator for theFHLBs, the Seattle bank would hold some securities and sell othersto institutional investors. It would also give credit union membersof the FHLBs another market for the MSBs. The proposal would putthe Seattle bank in greater competition with Fannie Mae and FreddieMac, which currently dominate the market for MSBs. The FHLBs havecome into increasing competition with the Fannie and Freddie inrecent years with the advent of their own secondary mortgage marketprogram, known as Mortgage Partnership Finance.
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Lake Shore Bancorp in Western New York has reached a "standstill agreement" with the Stilwell Group, which has promised not to force a merger or sale in the next three years.
March 20 -
Swiss banking giant UBS Group received federal approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to convert its $1.6 trillion-asset UBS Bank USA from a Utah-chartered industrial bank to a national charter.
March 20 -
Early industry reaction to the Federal Reserve's Basel III proposals points to potential capital relief for banks, though stakeholders say the complexity of the changes makes their overall impact unclear.
March 20 -
Financial institutions that delay or fail to take this leap risk losing customers and revenue, said speakers at the inaugural On-Chain Executive Summit.
March 20 -
CISA and Microsoft urge organizations to secure endpoint management systems as threat actors increasingly seek to disrupt operations with wiper malware.
March 20 -
Piermont Bank hired Dennis Day for a new executive role focused on payments; the American Bankers Association announced the global expansion of its widely used Fraud Contact Directory; MC Bankshares moved one step closer to finalizing its sale to an investor group; and more in this week's banking news roundup.
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