Hoping to encourage more banks lend to Native Americans, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle is creating a secondary market for home mortgages made on tribal lands.
The Home Loan Bank said late Thursday that it had received permission from its regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Board, to purchase up to $100 million home loans made to Native Americans under a government guarantee program.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has a program in which it will guarantee up to 95% of a loan made for housing on Native American land.
However, only five such loans have been made under the program, because demand for such loans on the secondary market has been virtually nonexistent, according to Home Loan bank officials.
