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When Bank Forward Founder A.C. Brown opened his first bank in 1927 in Hannaford, N.D., he had a simple formula for success: “Take care of the customer!” It’s a promise Bank Forward has kept for more than 90 years.

As a member of the FHLBank of Des Moines for 24 years, Bank Forward values our partnership with the System and the role it plays in supporting our nation’s financial infrastructure through their partnerships with approximately 6,500 banks, credit unions, insurance companies, and Community Development Financial Institutions.

Communities everywhere benefit from the System’s ability to provide access to billions of dollars in funding to financial institutions like ours. The FHLBanks’, including Des Moines’ scalable business model, is designed to allow for the expansion and contraction of funding to members and is one of the unique and highly valuable characteristics of the System. Simply put, the FHLBanks are here for us in all economic cycles: in good times like 2006 and 2007 when people were growing businesses and buying homes; in hard times like the mid-80’s when interest rates were skyrocketing to the high-teens; and in times of crisis like the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Without System advances (or loans), Bank Forward would find it more difficult to meet the diverse lending needs of the families and businesses in our communities. Without the System, we would have to come up with alternative sources for funding and face a possible disruption in service to our customers. Thankfully, the FHLBanks are here to stay.

Bank Forward is particularly proud of our ability to leverage the FHLBank’s MPF (mortgage sharing program) to serve all types of home ownership needs. For almost two and a half decades, FHLBank advances have allowed Bank Forward to help prospective homeowners enter the residential real estate market and live the American dream. This program has given Bank Forward a larger presence in communities where we need deposits, and through these loans, Bank Forward also is able to stimulate local economies and strengthen community investment.

Our partnership with the FHLBank of Des Moines also allows Bank Forward to act on one of the most basic principles we learned from our founder: take care of your employees and take care of your customers. In 2012, Bank Forward launched the Forward Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization that relies largely on employee and community donations for funding. The Foundation serves children, their families and organizations that benefit children in communities served by Bank Forward institutions. One hundred percent of the contributions made by our employees and others go to the children and organizations served by Forward Foundation. As community bankers, we couldn’t be prouder of the impact we are making through the Forward Foundation.

The FHLBank System also makes a national impact addressing the critical shortage of affordable housing. Through its Affordable Housing Program (AHP), the FHLBanks made available approximately $314.7 million in AHP subsidies. And from 1990 through 2021, the FHLBanks awarded approximately $7.3 billion in AHP subsidies, assisting more than one million households across America.
Whether providing liquidity for home ownership or other community investments, our partnership with the FHLBank of Des Moines helps Bank Forward succeed every day in our mission to place the prosperity of our customers and our communities as our highest priority. They are here for us so we can be there for our communities.