COFI Falls 17bps in April

The Eleventh Federal Home Loan District Cost of Funds Index stood at 3.111% for April, down 17 basis points from the level recorded for March. The decline represents the fifth consecutive monthly decrease of more than 10 basis points by COFI, which is a weighted-average calculation performed by the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. Since hitting its latest peak in September 2007, COFI has declined 127 bps. The index stands at its lowest point since November 2005, but still has a way to go to reach its all-time low. That took place in May 2004, when the index stood at 1.708%. COFI is computed from the actual interest expense reported for a given month by the Arizona, California, and Nevada savings institution members of the FHLBank-SF. According to the bank, the average funds used to calculate COFI totaled $407.4 billion in April (of which $239.1 billion came from deposits), while the total interest expense was $1.06 billion.