Alex Pollack, widely credited with creating the secondary mortgage market among federal home loan banks, resigned as president of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, the bank announced last week. Pollack, head of the Chicago bank the past 12 years, will join the American Enterprise Institute, the conservative Washington think tank, as a resident fellow.
The move raised eyebrows in the banking community last week because the conservative AEI is well-known for its support of the complete privatization of government sponsored enterprises like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHLBs. Neither Pollack nor the AEI would say last week whether his hiring amounted to an endorsement of that position.
The bank, which initiated the Mortgage Partnership Finance program secondary market program under Pollack, said it expects to name a successor on June 30. The MPF Program, which buys mortgages from banks and credit unions in direct competition with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has purchased more than $150 billion of mortgages since its inception in 1995. The Chicago bank has 707 member institutions, including 57 credit unions.
