COFI Inches Higher

After a huge, nearly 26-basis-point increase in the Eleventh Federal Home Loan District Cost of Funds Index in February, the index rose a mere 2 bps in March.According to the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, the index for March stood at 3.624%, compared with 3.604% the month before. The index consists of the weighted average of the cost of funds to originate mortgage loans among FHLBank's savings institution members in Arizona, California, and Nevada. On April 27, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before Congress's Joint Economic Committee. In the remarks, he noted that the Federal Open Market Committee had raised the federal funds rate by 25 bps at each of its last 15 meetings, for a total of 375 bps. He went on to say that "at some point in the future the committee may decide to take no action at one or more meetings in the interest of allowing more time to receive information relevant to the outlook." In the same period, starting around May 2004, COFI has increased 192 bps.