Members of the Federal Home Loan Bank System are held to certain community-support standards, which were established by the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) and amended in 1997. To ensure that these standards are met, the System's regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, selects a portion of the System's membership to review each quarter.

The Review Process
Each member selected for review must complete a Community Support Statement, which provides the Finance Agency with information about the member's most recent CRA evaluation and its measures to assist first-time home buyers.

Under the amended regulation, a member sends its statement directly to the Finance Agency, where it is reviewed to determine if the member meets the community-support standards. In accordance with FIRREA, members must meet these standards to maintain access to long-term advances from the Federal Home Loan Bank. (The community-support regulation defines a "long-term" advance as any advance with a maturity of more than one year.)

Public Comments
In addition to the information provided by members, the Finance Agency wishes to consider public comments — both positive feedback and suggestions for improvement — on the community-support activities of the institutions under review. Each quarter, the Federal Home Loan Banks notify community groups and other interested members of the public of the institutions selected for review and ask for comments on their community-support activities.

Interested in providing public comment? View the list of members selected for review this quarter.

Technical Assistance
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston can provide technical assistance to members selected for review and others with questions about the regulation or the review procedures. For technical assistance, please contact your community investment manager or relationship manager.