Comment Detail

Comment

I recently nominated one of my Directors for FHLB of Dallas's Affordable Housing Advisory Council and I was told member employees are not eligible to serve on an Advisory Council. In my experience Advisory Councils have no authority to make policy and simply provide feedback on programs, what works, what doesn't work and what is needed. This is another example of the FHLB system not listening to its members. In this case this is the core of the creation of the FHLB system. It was not established to assist FOR_PROFIT banks and credit unions with liquidity and cash flow management.
Furthermore, I found the listening session very helpful, however I was shocked at how uninformed traditional lenders were in regard to the fact CDFI's have been members of the FHLB system for a number of years and none of us have caused the bank to suffer a loss. The fact that so many of them kept referring to "allowing these risky organizations to become members could cause the downfall in the FHLB system" shows how clueless these institutions are. I also enjoyed the traditional lender who stated that CDFI's should not be allowed to be members unless we complied with the Community Reinvestment Act - once again another example of the fact they have no idea what CDFI's do or the populations we serve.