¶ 114 tached, shall be accepted at par by such bank in payment of or as a credit against the obligation of any home-owner debtor of such bank. SEC. 14. When designated for that purpose by the Secretary of the Treasury, each Federal Home Loan Bank shall be a depositary of public money, except receipts from customs, under such regulations as may be prescribed by said Secretary; and it may also be employed as a financial agent of the Government; and it shall perform all such reasonable duties as depositary of public money and financial agent of the Government as may be required of it. 115 116 SEC. 15. Obligations of the Federal Home Loan Banks issued with the approval of the board under this Act shall be lawful investments, and may be accepted as security, for all fiduciary, trust, and public funds the investment or deposit of which shall be under the authority or control of the United States or any officer or officers thereof. The Federal reserve banks are authorized to act as depositaries, custodians, and/or fiscal agents for Federal Home Loan Banks in the general performance of their powers under this Act. All obligations of Federal Home Loan Banks shall plainly state that such obligations are not obligations of the United States and are not guaranteed by the United States. RESERVES AND DIVIDENDS SEC. 16. Each Federal Home Loan Bank shall carry to a reserve account semiannually 20 per centum of its net earnings until said reserve account shall show a credit balance equal to 100 per centum of the paid-in capital of such bank. After said reserve has reached 100 per centum of the paid-in capital of said bank, 5 per centum of its net earnings shall be added thereto semiannually. Whenever said reserve shall have been impaired below 100 per centum of the paid-in capital it shall be restored before any dividends are paid. Each Federal Home Loan Bank shall establish such additional reserves and/or make such charge-offs on account of depreciation or impairment of its assets as the board shall require from time to time. No dividends shall be paid except out of net earnings remaining after all reserves and charge-offs required under this Act have been provided for, and then only with the approval of the board. The reserves of each Federal Home Loan Bank shall be invested, subject to ¶ 117 such regulations, restrictions, and limitations as may be prescribed by the board, in direct obligations of the United States, in obligations, participations, or other instruments of or issued by the Federal National Mortgage Association or the Government National Mortgage Association, and in such securities as fiduciary and trust funds may be invested in under the laws of the State in which the Federal Home Loan Bank is located. FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANK BOARD 11 SEC. 17. (a) For the purposes of this Act there shall be a board, to be known as the "Federal Home Loan Bank Board", which shall consist of five 10 citizens of the United States appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Not more than three members of the board shall be members of the same political party. Each member shall devote his entire time to the business of the board. Before entering upon his duties each of the members shall take an oath faithfully to discharge the duties of his office. The President of the United States shall designate one of the members of the board to serve for a term of two years, one for three years, one for four years, one for five years, and one for six years from the date 11 or the enactment hereof, and thereafter the term of each member shall be six years from the date of the expiration of the term for which his predecessor was appointed. Whenever a vacancy shall occur among the members the person appointed to fill such vacancy shall hold office for the unexpired portion of the term of the member whose place he is selected to fill. Each of the members of the board shall receive a salary at the rate of $10,000 12 per annum: Provided, That during the fiscal year 1933 the salary shall be $9,000 per annum. The President shall designate one of the members as chairman of the board. The chairman shall be the chief executive officer of the board and in his absence or disability the duties of his office shall be performed by some one of the other members to be designated as acting chairman by the chairman in such order as he may determine. The board shall supervise the Federal Home Loan Banks created by this Act, shall perform the other duties specifically prescribed by this Act, and shall have power to adopt, amend, and require the observance of such rules, regulations, and orders as shall be necessary from time to time for carrying out the purposes of the provisions of 10 See Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1947. 11 July 22, 1932. See 5 U.S.C. 5314-5315 for current salary levels. 118 this Act. The board shall have power to suspend or remove any director, officer, employee, or agent of any Federal Home Loan Bank, the cause of such suspension or removal to be communicated in writing forthwith to such director, officer, employee, or agent and to such Federal Home Loan Bank. (b) The Home Loan Bank Board which was, pursuant to Reorganization Plan Numbered 3 of 1947, established and made a constituent agency of the Housing and Home Finance Agency shall, from the effective date 13 of the Housing Amendments of 1955, cease to be such a constituent agency and shall be an independent agency (including the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation) in the executive branch of the Government: Provided, That the functions vested in the Chairman of said board under clause (2) of the last sentence of subsection (b) of section 2 of said reorganization plan are hereby transferred to said board. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, said board, the Chairman thereof except as herein otherwise provided, and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, respectively, shall have and may exercise all functions which they respectively had or could exercise, immediately prior to the effective date 1 of the Housing Amendments of 1955 or immediately prior to the effective date 15 of the Independent Offices Appropriation Act, 1955. Said board shall annually make a report of its operations (Including those of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation) to the Congress as soon as practicable after the first day of January in each year. The name of the Home Loan Bank Board is hereby changed to "Federal Home Loan Bank Board", 16 SEC. 18. (a) Obsolete. (There is hereby authorized to be appropriated the sum of not to exceed $300,000 for salaries, travel and subsistence expenses, rents, printing and binding, furniture and equipment, lawbooks, books of reference, periodicals, newspapers, maps, contract stenographic reporting services, telephone and telegraph services, and all other necessary expenses of the board, together with expenses preliminary to the organization and establishment of the banks created hereunder, until the end of the fiscal year 1933.) (b) The board shall have power to levy semiannually upon the Federal Home Loan Banks, and they shall pay, on such equitable basis as the board shall determine, an assessment sufficient in its judgment to provide for the payment of its estimated expenses for the half year succeeding the levying of each such assessment, beginning with the second half of the calendar year 1933. All expenses of the board incurred in carrying out the provisions of this Act, as determined by it, beginning July 1, 1933, shall be paid from the proceeds of such assessments, and if any deficiency shall occur in such fund at any time between such semiannual assessments the board shall have power to make an immediate assessment against the banks to cover such deficiency on the same basis as the original assessment. If any surplus shall remain from any assessment after the expiration of the semiannual period for which it was levied, such surplus may be deducted from the next following assessment. Such assessments may include such amounts as the board may deem advisable for carrying out the provisions of subsection (c) of this section. (c) (1) The board, utilizing the services of the Administrator of General Services (hereinafter referred to as the "Administrator"), and subject to any limitation hereon which may hereafter be imposed in appropriation Acts, is hereby authorized (A) to acquire, in the name of the United States, real property in the District of Columbia, for the purposes set forth in this subsection; (B) to construct, develop, furnish, and equip such buildings thereon and such facilities as in its judgment may be appropriate to provide, to such extent as the board may deem advisable, suitable and adequate quarters and facilities for the board and the agencies under its administration or supervision; (C) to enlarge, remodel, or reconstruct any of the same; and (D) to make or enter into contracts for any of the foregoing. (2) The board may require of the respective banks, and they shall make to the board, such advances of funds for the purposes set out in paragraph (1) as in the sole judgment of the board may from time to time be advisable. Such advances shall be in addition to the assessments authorized in subsection (b) and shall be apportioned by the board among the banks in proportion to the total assets of the respective banks, determined in such manner and as of such times as the board may prescribe. Each such advance shall bear interest at the rate of 42 per centum per annum from the date of the advance and shall be repaid by the board in such installments and over such period, not longer than twenty-five years from the making of the advance, as the board may determine. Payments of interest and principal upon such advances shall be made from receipts of the board or from other sources which may from time to time be available to the board. The obligation of the board to make any such payment shall not be regarded as an obligation of the United States. To such extent as the board may prescribe any such obligation shall be regarded as a legal investment for the purposes of subsections (g) and (h) of section 11 and for the purposes of section 16. (3) The plans and designs for such buildings and facilities and for any such enlargement, remodeling, or reconstruction shall, to such extent as the chairman of the board may request, be subject to his approval. (4) Upon the making of arrangements mutually agreeable to the board and the Administrator, which arrangements may be modified from time to time by mutual agreement between them and may include but shall not be limited to the making of payments by the board and such agencies to the Administrator and by the Administrator to the board, the custody, management, and control of such buildings and facilities and of such real property shall be vested in the Administrator in accordance therewith. Until the making of such arrangements such custody, management, and control, including the assignment and allotment and the reassignment and reallotment of building and other space, shall be vested in the board. (5) Any proceeds (including advances) received by the board in connection with this subsection, and any proceeds from the sale or other disposition of real or other property acquired by the board under this subsection, shall be considered as receipts of the board, and obligations and expenditures of the board and such agencies in connection with this subsection shall not be considered as administrative expenses. As used in this subsection, the term "property" shall include interests in property. (6) With respect to its functions under this subsection the board shall (A) annually prepare and submit a budget program as provided in title I of the Government Corporation Control Act with regard to wholly owned Government corporations, and for purposes of this sentence, the terms "wholly owned Government corporations" and "Government corporations", wherever used in such title, shall include the board, and (B) maintain an integral set of accounts which shall be audited annually by the General Accounting Office in accordance with the principles and procedures applicable to commercial corporate transactions as provided in such title, and no other audit, settlement, or adjustment shall be required with respect to transactions under this subsection or with respect to claims, demands, or accounts by or against any person arising thereunder. The first budget program shall be for the first full fiscal year beginning on or after the date of the enactment of this subsection, and the first audit shall be for the remainder of the fiscal year in which this subsection is enacted. Except as otherwise provided in this subsection or by the board, the provisions of this subsection and the functions thereby or thereunder subsisting shall be applicable and exercisable notwithstanding and without regard to the Act of June 20, 1938 (D.C. Code, secs. 5413-5-428), except that the proviso of section 16 thereof shall apply to any building constructed under this subsection, and section 306 of the Act of July 30, 1947 (61 Stat. 584), or any other provision of law relating to the construction, alteration, repair, or furnishing of public or other buildings or structures or the obtaining of sites therefor, but any person or body in whom any such function is vested may provide for delegation or redelegation of the exercise of such function. 119 (7) No obligation shall be incurred and no expenditure, except in liquidation of obligation, shall be made pursuant to the first two subparagraphs of paragraph (1) of this subsection if the total amount of all obligations incurred pursuant thereto would thereupon exceed $13,200,000, or such greater amount as may be provided in an appropriation Act or other law. SEC. 19. The Board shall have power to select, employ, and fix the compensation of such officers, employees, attorneys, and agents as shall be necessary for the performance of its duties under this Act without regard to the provisions of other laws applicable to the employment or compensation of officers, employees, attorneys, and agents of the United States. No such officer, employee, attorney, or agent shall be paid compensation at a rate in excess of the rate provided in the case of members of the Board. The Board shall be entitled to the free use of the United States mails for its official business in the same manner as the executive departments of the Government; and shall determine its necessary expenditures under this Act and the manner in which they shall be incurred, allowed, and paid. The receipts of the Board derived from assessments upon the Federal Home Loan Banks and from other sources (except receipts from the sale of consolidated Federal Home Loan Bank bonds and debentures issued under section 11) shall be deposited in the Treasury of the United ¶ 120 121 ¶ 122 States," and may be from time to time withdrawn therefrom to defray the expenses of the the Board, and the salaries of its members and employees, whose employment, compensation, leave, and expenses shall be governed solely by the provisions of this Act, specific amendments thereof, and rules and regulations of the Board not inconsistent therewith. All necessary expenses in connection with the making of supervisory or other examinations (except examinations of Federal Home Loan Banks), including the provision of services and facilities therefor, shall be considered as nonadministrative expenses.18 EXAMINATIONS AND REPORTS SEC. 20. The board shall from time to time, at least annually, require examinations and reports of condition of all Federal Home Loan Banks in such form as the board shall prescribe and shall furnish periodically statements based upon the reports of the banks to the board. For the purposes of this Act, examiners appointed by the board shall be subject to the same requirements, responsibilities, and penalties as are applicable to examiners under the National Bank Act and the Federal Reserve Act, and shall have, in the exercise of functions under this Act, the same powers and privileges as are vested in such examiners by law. UNLAWFUL Acts, and PenaLTIES SEC. 21. Repealed.19 SEC. 22. (a) In order to enable the board to carry out the provisions of this Act, the "The Independent Offices Appropriation Act, 1944, Public Law 90, 78th Congress, approved June 26, 1943, 57 Stat. 169, 186, provided for the setting up of a special deposit account with the Treasurer of the United States for the funds referred to in this sentence. 18 Section 201 of Public Law 86-626, approved July 12, 1960, 74 Stat. 425, 441, provides that "hereafter expenses of the Board in making studies or investigations specifically directed by law, or requested by the Congress or either House thereof or by a committee of either House, including services authorized by section 15 of the Act of August 2, 1946 (5 U.S.C. 55a), shall be considered as nonadministrative expenses". When Title 5 of the United States Code was enacted into positive law by Public Law 89-554, approved September 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 378, 5 U.S.C. 55a was designated as 5 U.S.C. 3109 (b). 10 Section 21 was repealed by Public Law 772, 80th Congress, approved June 25, 1948, 62 Stat. 683, 866, which enacted Title 18 of the United States Code, entitled "Crimes and Criminal Procedure", into positive law. In a substantially amended form, provisions of former section 21 are found in various sections of Title 18. 123 124 Treasury Department, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Federal reserve banks are hereby authorized, under such conditions as they may prescribe, to make available to the board in confidence for its use and the use of any Federal Home Loan Bank such reports, records, or other information as may be available, relating to the condition of institutions with respect to which any such Federal Home Loan Bank has had or contemplates having transactions under this Act or relating to persons whose obligations are offered to or held by any Federal Home Loan Bank, and to make through their examiners or other employees, for the confidential use of the board or any Federal Home Loan Bank, examinations of such institutions. (b) Every institution which shall apply for advances under this Act shall, as a condition precedent thereto, consent to such examination as the bank or the board may require for the purposes of this Act and/or that reports of examinations by constituted authorities may be furnished by such authorities to the bank or the board upon request therefor. SEC. 23. In order that the Federal Home Loan Banks may be supplied with such forms of stock, debentures, and bonds as may be neccessary under this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to prepare such forms thereof as shall be suitable and approved by the board, which shall be held in the Treasury subject to delivery, upon order of the board. The engraved plates, dies, and bed pieces executed in connection therewith shall remain in the custody of the Secretary of the Treasury. The board shall reimburse the Secretary of the Treasury for any expense incurred in the preparation, custody, and delivery of such stock, debentures, and bonds. SEC. 24. (a) Any organization organized under the laws of any State and subject to inspection and regulation under the banking or similar laws of such State shall be eligible to become a member under this Act if— (1) it is organized solely for the purpose of supplying credit to its members; (2) its membership (A) is confined exclusively to building and loan associations, savings and loan associations, cooperative banks, and homestead associations; or (B) is confined exclusively to savings banks; and (3) of the institutions to which its membership is confined which are organized within 125 ¶ 126 127 the State, its membership includes a majority of such institutions. (b) In all respects, but subject to such additional rules and regulations as the board may provide, any such organization shall be a member for the purposes of this Act. SEC. 25. Each Federal Home Loan Bank shall have succession until dissolved by the the board under this Act or by further Act of Congress. SEC. 26. Whenever the board finds that the efficient and economical accomplishment of the purposes of this Act will be aided by such action, and in accordance with such rules, regulations, and orders as the board may prescribe, any Federal Home Loan Bank may be liquidated or reorganized, and its stock paid off and retired in whole or in part in connection therewith after paying or making provision for the payment of its liabilities. In the case of any such liquidation or reorganization, any other Federal Home Loan Bank may, with the approval of the board, acquire assets of such liquidated or reorganized bank and assume liabilities thereof, in whole or in part. any SEC. 27. Any institution, except a national bank, trust company, or other banking organization organized under any law of the United States, including the laws relating to the District of Columbia, shall be authorized to subscribe for stock of a Federal Home Loan Bank if otherwise eligible to make such subscription under the terms of this Act, any provision in any such law to the contrary notwithstanding. 128 SEC. 28. If any provision of this Act, or the application thereof to any person or circumstances, is held invalid, the remainder of the Act, and the application of such provision to other persons or circumstances, shall not be affected thereby. ¶ 129 130 SEC. 29. Expired. (That notwithstanding any provisions of law prohibiting bonds of the United States from bearing the circulation privilege, for a period of three years from the date of enactment of this Act 20 all outstanding bonds of the United States heretofore issued or issued during such period, bearing interest at a rate not exceeding 3 per centum per annum, shall be receivable by the Treasurer of the United States as security for the issuance of circulating notes to national banking associations, and upon the deposit with the Treasurer of the United States by a national banking association of any such bonds, such association shall be entitled to receive circulating notes in the same manner and to the same extent and subject to the same conditions and limitations now provided by law in the case of 2 per centum gold bonds of the United States bearing the circulation privilege; except that the limitation contained in section 9 of the Act of July 12, 1882, as amended, with respect to the amount of lawful money which may be deposited with the Treasurer of the United States by national banking associations for the purpose of withdrawing bonds held as security for their circulating notes, shall not apply to the bonds of the United States to which the circulation privilege is extended by this section and which are held as security for such notes. Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to modify, amend, or repeal any law relating to bonds of the United States which now bear the circulation privilege. As used in this section, the word "bonds" shall not include notes, certificates, or bills issued by the United States. There are hereby authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this section.) |