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Working Paper

Federal Home Loan Bank Lending to Community Banks. Are Targeted Subsidies Necessary?

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The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 amended the lending authority of the Federal Home Loan Banks to include advances secured by small enterprise loans of community financial institutions. Three possible reasons for the extension of this selective credit subsidy to community banks and thrifts are examined, including the need to subsidize community depository institutions, stabilize the Federal Home Loan Banks, and address a market failure in rural markets for small enterprise loans. We empirically investigate whether funding constraints impact the small-business lending decision by rural community banks. Specifically, we estimate two empirical models of small-business lending by community banks. The data reject the hypothesis that access to increased funds will increase the amount of small-business loans made by community banks.
08.01.2001ISSN 2573-7953 WP 01-12DOI 10.26509/frbc-wp-200112
Keywords small business loans, community banks, government sponsored enterprises
JEL Classification Codes G2

Working Papers of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland are preliminary materials circulated to stimulate discussion and critical comment on research in progress. They may not have been subject to the formal editorial review accorded official Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland publications. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland or the Federal Reserve System.

Suggested Citation

Craig, Ben R., and James B. Thomson. 2001. “Federal Home Loan Bank Lending to Community Banks. Are Targeted Subsidies Necessary?” Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Working Paper No. 01-12. https://doi.org/10.26509/frbc-wp-200112