ACB Backs FHLBank Secondary Market Efforts

Though the new chairman of America's Community Bankers, Russell Taylor of Rahway Savings Institution, heads a Fannie Mae seller/servicer that sells the lion's share of its fixed-rate loans to Fannie, he says ACB remains supportive of the Federal Home Loan Bank System's effort to provide an alternative to Fannie and Freddie.In his address to the ACB convention in San Francisco, outgoing chairman Curtis L. Hage stressed that ACB is a strong advocate of the FHLBank system and the possibility of securitizing the FHLBanks' Acquired Member Assets program to expand it beyond its modest $50 billion level. An FHLBank panel following Mr. Hage's address explored the possibility of the FHLBanks' employing securitization as a way to expand the Mortgage Partnership Finance Program and the Mortgage Purchase Program as alternatives to Fannie and Freddie dominance in the secondary market. No FHLBank securitization initiatives have been mounted to date.