Throughout this last year and a half, I’ve used the phrase “Together we will” as a rallying cry to the entire FHLBank Topeka team that emphasizes the importance of teamwork and having a shared vision. As your cooperative partner, we’ve taken this phrase to heart. Our employees, which we refer to as business partners, have worked together to ensure our decisions are driven by our members’ best interests. We know that working in tandem with our members makes for much stronger results for all of us.

I’m thrilled “together” won’t just mean a virtual connection for our upcoming regional meetings. For the first time since the fall of 2019, we’ll be hosting in-person member events in each state. If you haven’t registered, check out the full program details online at www.fhlbtopeka.com/rm.

You’re invited to join us for a morning of education, which will include:

• An update from an economist focused on your region
• A look at new technology, retail delivery and workforce from an expert in the marketing field
• A Q&A with our new Chief Financial Officer Jeff Kuzbel
   

FHLBank Topeka follows the guidance of the CDC to keep our members and business partners safe. As you have probably heard in its July 27 announcement, the CDC recommends masks indoors for all individuals regardless of vaccination status in substantial and high transmission areas.  As of this message, all four locations for our sessions are in a substantial or high transmission area, which means we’d recommend masks indoors if the event was held today.  We will monitor each meeting location’s transmission rate and will let you know prior to the meeting dates what safety protocols will be followed.
 

Although Jeff Kuzbel will share more about our financials at the regional meetings, you don’t need to wait until then to see where we stand. Last week, we shared our second quarter earnings release. We’ll be filing our second quarter Form 10-Q with the SEC next week.

Here are some other recent notable developments at FHLBank Topeka.

Support Your Cooperative Through FHLBank Product Use
We stand ready to help support your business through our three main products: advances, letters of credit and the MPF Program. Usage of the products offered by your cooperative drives our success and ultimately benefits all members.

Although advance use is still down overall due to high liquidity and deposit levels at our depository members, we are seeing some members employing different strategies using advances. Our Kansas regional account manager, Jeff Steiner, outlined one of these strategies – staying invested – in a Financial Intelligence article.

Other members have turned to match funding, where they fund a loan or group of loans with advances by matching exactly the dollar amount, term and principal payment schedule. This strategy protects your institution from future increases in interest rates by locking in historically low costing longer term funding. Please contact your regional account manager or the Lending Desk if you’d like to discuss these strategies further.

Also keep in mind, we are offering an advance special on all regular fixed-rate amortizing and bullet advances with terms two years or greater. These advances work well for matching off on specific assets, lengthening liabilities or as an alternative to purchased deposits. Rates are 10 basis points below our standard pricing. When combined with our attractive dividend, your cost is lower than other funding alternatives. We update indications daily on our website.

Our second flagship product, letters of credit, is popular with many of you because of the easy online submission process. Members are able to manage their letters of credit online and pre-submit their applications up to five days in advance. Letters of credit users prefer the ease of use relative to operational requirements associated with pledging and releasing securities collateral and find this support for public unit deposits an efficient use of their available collateral capacity. You can learn more on our   letters of credit page.

Finally, many of you participate in our Mortgage Partnership Finance® (MPF®) Program. As you know, the MPF Program is administered by FHLBank of Chicago, one of our sister FHLBanks. As things change in the mortgage market, we remain committed to working with FHLBank of Chicago and all of our participating members to continue providing high value products and reliable access to the secondary market. More about the MPF Program is available on   our website.

Affordable Housing Program (AHP)
This year’s competitive round of the AHP opened July 5 with $8.5 million available to finance owner-occupied and rental housing that address the needs of very low-, low-, and moderate-income households. The online application will be open until Aug. 20. We encourage you to consider how your community could benefit from these grants.

To learn more about AHP or any of our housing and community development programs, visit our website or call our Housing and Community Development team at 866.571.8155.

Staff Updates
Last month, Trent Meyer began working alongside Mark Woita to serve our members in central and eastern Nebraska and northeast Kansas. Mark is retiring next month after 22 years of service at FHLBank Topeka. 

Thank you, Mark, for being such a great representative of the FHLBank to your assigned membership base for the past 22 years! All of us at FHLBank Topeka congratulate Mark on his upcoming retirement and Trent on his new position.

You can hear from both Trent and Mark on an upcoming episode of Bank Statements, our podcast series. Subscribe to Bank Statements to be alerted whenever a new episode debuts.

Board of Directors Election
Nominations closed in late July for our 2021 board of director election. Voting begins Oct. 1 and ends Nov. 3. Be on the lookout for your ballot then. I urge you all to participate to select your peers and independent directors who will help guide the future of your cooperative.

Please reach out to me or any member of the FHLBank team with how we can serve you better. Your feedback is always appreciated.

Together we will!

“Mortgage Partnership Finance” and “MPF” are registered trademarks of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago.