
Encouraging Community Building
The nature of this particular institution is different from the average home loan company. They are designed to facilitate home ownership on a community wide scale. Their mission is connected to the government’s mission of providing available funds for people to purchase their own homes because homeownership is a societal value. Their existence as a cooperative changes the nature of their institution and therefore the financial packages they offer are less about the bank’s bottom line and more about providing a service to a community. The bank itself is an institution created to bolster other member institutions like banks, credit unions and loan companies. Any such institution within their geographic limits can become a member of the cooperative and receive support services and make investments.
Creating Stability from Chaos
Although not a lending institution to individuals in the classic sense, the FHLB Chicago provides all of its member institutions with stability in a volatile market. Since the nature of the capitalist system is to change within cycles of boom and bust, the process of financing homeownership can also suffer from instability. In light of that, the Federal Home Loan Bank and others like it were created to make the homeownership process less subject to the whims of the market and stock prices. In that sense, borrowers who chose a lender from their membership are doubly protected from the changing financial scene.