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| 8-K - PRIMARY DOCUMENT - Federal Home Loan Bank of New York | form_8k.htm |
September
5, 2018
TO:
All
Stockholders
(Addressed
Individually)
SUBJECT:
Report from the President
At the Bank
A Critical Role
In
August, the credit rating agency S&P Global Ratings issued a
pair of reports on, respectively, the Federal Home Loan Bank System
and the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York. The two reports reflect
not only the strong performance of our cooperative and our System,
but also the critical role the Home Loan Banks play in our
nation’s economy.
In its
report on the System, S&P Global stated: “We believe that
within the U.S. housing finance framework, the FHLB System has a
critical public-policy role as one of the most important national
liquidity providers to U.S. mortgage lenders, particularly during
stressful conditions, when private-sector liquidity often proves
unreliable.” We take great pride in our ability to meet the
funding needs of our members in any and all environments, a pride
we share with our 10 fellow Home Loan Banks. And as both individual
cooperatives and a full System, we successfully act on this role,
as reflected by S&P Global’s AA+/Stable/A-1+ rating for
each Home Loan Bank. We play a critical role because we support a
vital institution: the local lender. As S&P Global noted,
“FHLBanks provide their members with a reliable source of
funding for housing finance, community lending, and asset-liability
management, as well as liquidity for members’ short-term
needs.” These are the activities that keep our economy strong
and helps communities grow, and we are proud to support our members
with our reliable funding.
The
S&P Global report on our cooperative was also very positive.
The report stated that S&P Global viewed our “business
position as strong, reflecting the company’s established
market position, recurring business volumes, and public policy
role…” The report also characterized us as having
strong capital, good liquidity, stable earnings and a strong risk
position, all of which contribute to our ability to serve as your
trusted partner.
The
S&P Global reports also highlighted several potential
weaknesses within the Federal Home Loan Bank System, chief among
them being “longer-term uncertainty related to potential
legislative changes associated with broader housing finance
reform.” We have seen housing finance reform efforts undergo
numerous starts and stops since the financial crisis, but the
S&P Global report serves as an important reminder that, if and
when housing finance reform efforts gain steam, it will be
important to help ensure that any legislation does not impact our
ability to continue to meet the needs of our members and the
communities we all serve.
Strong Performance, Positioned to Help
The
strong and consistent performance of our franchise that the S&P
Global reports highlight positions us to provide our members with a
return on your investment in our cooperative. We most recently
accomplished this on August 16, when our Board approved a 6.75
percent dividend for the second quarter of 2018. But our
performance also positions us to provide a return to the
communities in which we and our members operate. Each year, we
provide this return through our Affordable Housing Program and our
First Home Club. And earlier this year, we announced our Homeowner
Recovery Grant and Small Business Recovery Grant programs –
programs we developed in line with our strategic framework for
disaster response to assist in recovery efforts in Puerto Rico and
the U.S. Virgin Islands following the devastation to the region
brought by hurricanes Irma and Maria. These programs, funded with
$5 million approved by our Board, are administered by our Caribbean
members and housing partners – the local institutions that
know the needs of the communities as they continue to recover from
last year’s storms. When we created these programs, it was
our belief that having local institutions administer them would
allow for the funding to most effectively reach the households and
small businesses in need. And, at our August Board meeting, we saw
just how effective this local partnership can be.
At this
meeting, our Directors received a presentation from PathStone
Corporation on how this non-profit organization is putting our
Homeowner Recovery Grants to work. The presentation showed
before-and-after pictures of three households that have received
funding to rehabilitate or relocate their homes, as well as
pictures of the damaged homes of three additional households who
will soon receive the same support. The impact of seeing these
photos side-by-side was truly striking: the anguish over the damage
done, and the hopefulness of the fresh start these rebuilt homes
will provide. As PathStone noted in its presentation, “We
don’t just build and repair roofs, we change lives.”
That is what we saw in the presentation, and what we see every year
in our Affordable Housing Program and First Home Club. And it is
what we will see later this month when our employees join with
Habitat for Humanity of Bergen County for our annual volunteer
builds. The impact the partnership between a local lender and a
housing organization can have on a community is vital, affecting
real people and helping real lives. It is a partnership we are
proud to support, in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands,
across our District and beyond.
As we
conclude summer and move towards the final stretch of 2018, I look
forward to continuing to build on our partnerships with all of our
members, providing the products and programs that support your
business, and working together to close out the year on a strong
and positive note.
Sincerely,
José
R. González
President
and Chief Executive Officer
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Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995
This
report may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of
the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based upon our
current expectations and speak only as of the date hereof. These
statements may use forward-looking terms, such as
“projected,” “expects,” “may,”
or their negatives or other variations of these terms. The Bank
cautions that, by their nature, forward-looking statements involve
risk or uncertainty and that actual results could differ materially
from those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements
or 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, regulatory and
accounting rule adjustments or requirements, changes in interest
rates, changes in projected business volumes, changes in prepayment
speeds on mortgage assets, the cost of our funding, changes in our
membership profile, the withdrawal of one or more large members,
competitive pressures, shifts in demand for our products, and
general economic conditions. We undertake no obligation to
revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any
reason.
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