SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Statements contained in this annual report on Form 10-K, including statements describing the objectives, projections, estimates, or future predictions in our operations, may be forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, such as believes, projects, expects, anticipates, estimates, intends, strategy, plan, could, should, may, and will or their negatives or other variations on these terms. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk or uncertainty, and actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied or could affect the extent to which a particular objective, projection, estimate, or prediction is realized. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following:
We undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. A detailed discussion of the more important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and events to differ from such forward-looking statements is included under “Item 1A. Risk Factors."
PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
OVERVIEW
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines (the Bank, we, us, or our) is a federally chartered corporation organized on October 31, 1932, that is exempt from all federal, state, and local taxation (except real property taxes) and is one of 12 district FHLBanks. The FHLBanks were created under the authority of the Federal Home Loan Bank Act of 1932 (FHLBank Act). With the passage of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (Housing Act), the Federal Housing Finance Agency (Finance Agency) was established and became the new independent federal regulator of Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) (collectively, Enterprises), as well as the FHLBanks and FHLBank's Office of Finance (Office of Finance), effective July 30, 2008. The Finance Agency's mission is to provide effective supervision, regulation, and housing mission oversight of the Enterprises and FHLBanks to promote their safety and soundness, support housing finance and affordable housing, and support a stable and liquid mortgage market. The Finance Agency establishes policies and regulations governing the operations of the Enterprises and FHLBanks. Each FHLBank operates as a separate entity with its own management, employees, and board of directors.
We are a cooperative. This means we are owned by our customers, whom we call members. Our members may include commercial banks, thrifts, credit unions, insurance companies, and community development financial institutions in Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota. While not considered members, we also do business with state and local housing associates meeting certain statutory criteria.
BUSINESS MODEL
Our mission is to provide funding and liquidity to our members and housing associates so that they can meet the housing, economic development, and business needs of the communities they serve. We strive to achieve our mission within an operating principle that balances the trade-off between attractively priced products, reasonable returns on capital investments, and maintaining adequate capital and retained earnings to support safe and sound business operations.
We are capitalized primarily through the purchase of capital stock by our members. As a condition of membership, all of our members must purchase and maintain membership capital stock based on a percentage of their total assets as of the preceding December 31st subject to a cap of $10.0 million and a floor of $10,000. Each member is also required to purchase and maintain activity-based capital stock to support certain business activities with us. Member demand for our products expands and contracts with economic and market conditions. Our self-capitalizing capital structure, which allows us to repurchase or require additional capital stock based on member activity, provides us with the flexibility to effectively and efficiently meet the changing needs of our membership. While eligible to borrow, housing associates are not members and, as such, are not permitted to purchase capital stock.
Our capital stock is not publicly traded. It is purchased and redeemed by members or repurchased by us at a par value of $100 per share. Our current members own nearly all of our outstanding capital stock. Former members own the remaining capital stock to support business transactions still carried on our Statements of Condition. All stockholders, including current and former members, may receive dividends on their investment to the extent declared by our Board of Directors.
Our primary business activities are providing collateralized loans, known as advances, to members and housing associates, and acquiring residential mortgage loans from or through our members. Our primary source of funding and liquidity is the issuance of debt securities, referred to as consolidated obligations, in the capital markets. Consolidated obligations are the joint and several obligations of all FHLBanks and are backed only by the financial resources of the FHLBanks. A critical component to the success of our operations is the ability to issue consolidated obligations regularly in the capital markets under a wide range of maturities, structures, and amounts, and at relatively favorable spreads to market interest rates.
Our net income is primarily attributable to the difference between the interest income we earn on our advances, mortgage loans, and investments, and the interest expense we pay on our consolidated obligations and member deposits, as well as components of other (loss) income (e.g., gains and losses on derivatives and hedging activities). Because we are a cooperative, we operate with narrow margins and expect to be profitable over the long-term based on our prudent lending standards, conservative investment strategies, and diligent risk management practices. Because we operate with narrow margins, our net income is sensitive to changes in market conditions that can impact the interest we earn and pay and introduce volatility in other (loss) income.
A portion of our annual net income is used to fund our Affordable Housing Program (AHP), which provides grants and subsidized advances to members to support housing for very low to moderate income households. By regulation, we are required to contribute ten percent of our net earnings each year to the AHP. For purposes of the AHP assessment, net earnings is defined as net income before assessments, plus interest expense related to mandatorily redeemable capital stock, less the assessment for Resolution Funding Corporation (REFCORP), if applicable. For additional details on our AHP, refer to the "Assessments" section of this Item 1.