Federal Home Loan Banks: Role in Providing Liquidity and Actions Related to the Spring 2023 Bank Failures

What GAO Found The Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLBank) System is a government-sponsored enterprise that consists of 11 federally chartered FHLBanks that support liquidity in the financial system by making loans—known as advances—to member financial institutions, including banks. These advances offer member institutions a low-cost source of funding to make mortgage loans or manage the risk of not meeting financial obligations in a timely and cost-efficient manner (liquidity risk). A December 2025 GAO report found that as of June 2025, 93 percent of banks were FHLBank members and more than three-qu