A Source of Stability for 90 Years and Counting

• We ended the second quarter of 2022 with $52.8 billion in advances outstanding, our highest quarter-end advance balance since Q1 2020.
  • We saw increased liquidity and funding needs from our members as loan growth increased and deposit growth has slowed. We are supporting these needs with attractively priced advances and discounts on certain advances.
  • We encourage our members to view our B1 activity stock dividend as an effective reduction in advance rates. We estimate the net benefit of the increased 5.75% dividend on Class B1 activity stock has the effect of lowering your borrowing costs from us, currently estimated at 22 bps¹ interest rate reduction.  

• On June 29, 2022, FHLBank Chicago and Ginnie Mae announced that the total issuance under the MPF Program surpassed $3 billion in mortgage-backed securities (MBS). The MPF Government MBS product resulted from a relationship forged by FHLBank Chicago and Ginnie Mae to issue securities guaranteed by Ginnie Mae and backed by mortgages originated by Federal Home Loan Bank member financial institutions. The MPF Government MBS product provides participating members, particularly smaller institutions, direct access to the secondary mortgage market.

• Inflationary pressures, along with the Federal Reserve’s quantitative tightening actions, have resulted in substantially increased home prices and mortgage rates in a short time frame, impacting home affordability for many buyers. To help alleviate some of the overall market pressures, FHLBank Chicago is offering summer pricing specials for our MPF Traditional product to enhance member profitability while potentially offering lower mortgage rates to your customers.

• We offer SOFR-linked products to support our members’ LIBOR transition efforts. In addition to our popular Discount Note Floater Advance (A382), we now offer a Callable Floating Rate Advance (A380), which supports the flexible liquidity needs of our members.
  
• In May 2022, we offered our 2022 COVID-19 Recovery Advance to support our members as they recovered from the pandemic. We are pleased to share that 119 members took advantage of the opportunity, executing a total of $528 million in significantly-below-market rate advances.  

• Our events have been back in person this year, for the first time in three years. After the success of our Member Meetings in March, we were happy to host our 2022 FHLBank System Insurance Conference in June. We look forward to seeing many of you next week at our annual marquee event – the 2022 Management Conference, August 4-5, 2022 in Chicago – with keynote speaker Paul Ryan. Attendees will hear valuable insights from distinguished guest speakers on leadership, the economy, politics, business, and innovation. Credit union members can save the date for our 2022 Credit Union Conference, October 6-7, 2022 in Chicago. Registration will open on August 10. 

Providing Support for Your Communities 

• Our new Community First^® Accelerate Grants for Small Business, a pivot from our previous Community First® Capacity-Building Grant Program, provide flexible grant funds to strengthen small businesses in Illinois and Wisconsin. Applications will be accepted from August 2 – September 9, 2022. We continue to offer our Community Small Business Advance with an initial rate of 0% to support local economies and community revitalization across our District.  

• Our inaugural Community First^® Diverse Developer Initiative received 32 applications, requesting over $5 million. This competitive grant program provides nonprofit and for-profit organizations, in collaboration with our members, with funding for career and talent development initiatives supporting diverse developers of affordable housing across Illinois and Wisconsin. We will announce the award recipients next month.     
  
• Our Downpayment Plus^® (DPP^®) Programs continue to provide our members easy-to-access downpayment and closing cost assistance to help your income-eligible customers achieve homeownership. In honor of National Homeownership Month in June, we hosted a special DPP webinar on June 16. The recording and other resources are available on our DPP webpage. We anticipate providing $18 million in downpayment assistance throughout 2022.
  

• Our 2022 Affordable Housing Program (AHP) General Fund closed on June 10, 2022. Forty members and 48 sponsors jointly submitted 67 applications for approximately $41.9 million in subsidy to support the construction, acquisition, and/or rehabilitation of more than 3,500 housing units. We expect to award approximately $20.7 million this year and will announce the awards in late October.

• We require a Member Security Administrator (MSA) from each institution to annually review their institution’s eBanking user authorization roles and access permissions. Complete your eBanking Administration Recertification by August 31, 2022.

• Take part in a unique opportunity to provide feedback on potential new eBanking features through one of our Member Focus Groups running through December 2022. 
  

• Ballots for our 2022 Member and Independent Director Election will be sent to eligible member institutions in September and the voting deadline is October 20, 2022. 
  

President and CEO

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¹Reflects Class B1 activity stock dividend as a reduction to the assumed advance rate, based on a B1 dividend rate of 5.75% for Q2 2022 payable in Q3 2022, an opportunity cost of buying stock (estimated to be the current U.S. Federal Reserve Discount Rate of 0.759%), and 4.50% advance capitalization for illustration purposes only.

Second Quarter Dividend and Financial Highlights 

• Advances outstanding increased to $52.8 billion at June 30, 2022, compared to $48.0 billion at December 31, 2021 attributable to increased borrowings from our depository institutions.

• MPF^® loans held in portfolio continued to remain steady at $10.0 billion at June 30, 2022, compared to $9.8 billion at December 31, 2021.

• Total investment securities decreased 18% to $20.8 billion at June 30, 2022, compared to $25.5 billion at December 31, 2021, attributable to a reduction in investment in U.S. Treasuries and a decline in the fair value of our available-for-sale (AFS) portfolio driven by rising market interest rates.

• Total liquid assets increased to $21.0 billion at June 30, 2022, compared to $13.2 billion at December 31, 2021. We maintain a sufficient pool of liquidity to support anticipated member demand for advances and letters of credit.

• Total assets increased to $105.2 billion as of June 30, 2022, compared to $97.0 billion as of December 31, 2021. 

• Letters of credit commitments increased to $13.1 billion at June 30, 2022, compared to $11.3 billion at December 31, 2021. 

• We recorded net income of $91 million in the second quarter of 2022, up $13 million compared to the second quarter of 2021, with the increase primarily driven by increased returns on our liquid assets as interest rates rose during the period. 

• In the second quarter of 2022, noninterest income was $5 million, an increase of $15 million when compared to a $(10) million (loss) for the second quarter of 2021. Gains from derivatives used to hedge our market risk exposure was the primary driver of this increase. There was also a significant decline in the average balance of our trading securities outstanding for the period resulting from a decline in investment in U.S. Treasuries, which in turn reduced the amount of losses incurred on our trading portfolio.

• We remained in compliance with all of our regulatory capital requirements as of June 30, 2022.

Forward-Looking Information: This letter contains forward-looking statements which are based upon our current expectations and speak only as of the date hereof. All statements other than statements of historical fact are “forward-looking statements,” including any projections or guidance of dividends or other financial items; any statements of the plans, strategies, and objectives for future operations; any statements of belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. These statements may use forward-looking terms, such as “anticipates,” “believes,” “expects,” “could,” “plans,” “estimates,” “may,” “should,” “will,” or their negatives or other variations on these terms. We caution that, by their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks or uncertainties, that actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements, and that actual events could affect the extent to which a particular objective, projection, estimate, or prediction is realized. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global and national economies and on our and our members’ businesses, geopolitical instability or conflicts, maintaining compliance with regulatory and statutory requirements (including relating to our dividend payments and retained earnings), any decrease in our levels of business which may negatively impact our results of operations or financial condition, the reliability of our projections, assumptions, and models on future financial performance and condition, instability in the credit and debt markets, economic conditions including inflation and housing prices, and the effects on, among other things, mortgage-backed securities, changes in mortgage interest rates and prepayment speeds on mortgage assets, our ability to execute our business model and to pay future dividends (including enhanced dividends on activity stock), our ability to meet required conditions to repurchase or redeem excess capital stock from members, including maintaining compliance with our minimum regulatory capital requirements and determining our financial condition is sound enough to support such repurchases and redemptions, our ability to continue to offer the Reduced Capitalization Advance Program, our ability to implement product enhancements and new products, the impacts of changes to Federal Home Loan Bank membership requirements, capital requirements and guidance, and liquidity requirements and guidance by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the loss of members through mergers and consolidations, our ability to retain and recruit qualified personnel, our ability to protect the security of our information systems and manage any failures, interruptions, or breaches, uncertainties relating to the phase-out of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), and the risk factors set forth in our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on our website at fhlbc.com. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this letter. “Community First,” “Downpayment Plus,” “DPP,” “Mortgage Partnership Finance,” “MPF,” and “MPF Xtra” are federally registered trademarks of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago.