DES MOINES, Iowa, Aug. 17, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- The Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines is continuing to proceed with the registration of its capital stock with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Under regulations issued by the Bank's regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Board (Finance Board), the Bank was required to file a Form 10 with the SEC by June 30, 2005 and such registration is required to be effective by August 29, 2005. The Bank was unable to file a registration statement on the SEC's Edgar system by June 30, 2005 and, as discussed further below, there is no assurance that the Bank's registration with the SEC will become effective by the regulatory deadline of August 29, 2005.
The Finance Board is currently in the process of conducting its regular 2005 examination of the Bank. The Bank's Board of Directors has established an Internal Review Committee (IRC) to review certain matters related to Bank operations and internal controls raised during the examination process and recommend to the Board of Directors any actions that it believes should be taken by the Bank with respect to such matters. The Bank is also reviewing its retained earnings policy and may make changes to the policy, which could result in lower dividends in the future. The Bank cannot predict what actions, if any, the Finance Board may take as a result of the examination process.
The effectiveness of the Bank's registration with the SEC and the release of the Bank's quarterly financial statements for 2005 are likely to be delayed until the review by the IRC and the Board of Directors is completed and until the Bank completes the resolution of accounting matters that are being addressed in connection with the Bank's SEC registration process.
The Bank cannot predict whether the results of the internal review or resolution of accounting matters will have a material impact on the Bank or on our financial statements.
Statements contained in this announcement, 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 anticipates, believes, could, estimate, may, should 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.
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines is a AAA-rated wholesale bank that provides low-cost short and long-term funding and community lending to more than 1,200 stockholder commercial banks, saving institutions, credit unions and insurance companies. The Bank is wholly owned by its members and receives no taxpayer funding. The Des Moines Bank serves Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota and is one of twelve regional Banks that make up the Federal Home Loan Bank System.