Blog · August 4, 2026
Who Won FHLB Advances? The Mean, Obviously.
Mean EveryBank borrowed 16% more from the Home Loan Banks. Median EveryBank owes $735,000 and is still thinking about it.
Every quarter, EveryBank's two management teams (the mean and the median) disagree about something. This quarter it was Federal Home Loan Bank advances, and as usual, the mean won by showing up with more money.
FHLB advances, every U.S. bank counted once
"Banks with any" is the share of banks that borrowed at all. The median counts a bank with no advances as zero.
| Quarter | EveryBank (mean) | EveryBank (median) | Banks with any |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q2 2026 | $125.6M | $735,000 | 52.5% |
| Q1 2026 | $108.4M | $152,000 | 50.7% |
| Q4 2025 | $96.7M | $1,000,000 | 53.1% |
| Q3 2025 | $98.4M | $1,000,000 | 53.5% |
| Q2 2025 | $108.1M | $1,824,000 | 54.5% |
Year over year: mean +16%, median −60%. The median fell from $1.82 million to $152,000 over three quarters, then bounced.
The mean's case. Advances per bank rose 16% from a year ago and 16% from last quarter, to $125.6 million. That is a real move in wholesale funding. It was made by a small number of banks large enough to move an average of 4,239.
The median's case. The median bank's advances were $735,000. In the first quarter they were $152,000. That isn't a funding strategy. It's a rounding decision.
The reason is how many banks borrow at all. Almost exactly half of American banks carry any FHLB advances at all: 52.5% this quarter, 50.7% last. When coverage sits at 50%, the median bank is the one standing in the doorway. Some quarters it borrows a little; some quarters it doesn't. Median EveryBank isn't borrowing from the Home Loan Bank. It's deciding whether to.
"The mean borrowed. The median considered borrowing. Both are accurate descriptions of the American banking system, and only one of them will be in the headlines."
— Stan Deveaux, Chief Financial Officer
Which banks drove the mean? The 32 banks over $100 billion. From June 2025 to June 2026 they added $72.5 billion of FHLB advances, up 35%, which is 97.7% of the net increase at banks that were around all year. Banks from $1 billion to $100 billion were roughly flat (+1.3% and +1.5%). Banks under $1 billion paid down 5.2%. All ten of the biggest new borrowers are in the $100 billion club, led by one bank that added $22.4 billion by itself, about four-fifths of what every bank under $1 billion holds combined.
Measured against their size, the megabanks still lean on the Home Loan Banks the least of any tier: advances are about 1.5% of their assets, against 3.6–3.7% for the regionals. They are light drinkers. They just drink from a much bigger glass, and this year they refilled it.
"I only speak in ranges. The range of FHLB advances at American banks runs from zero to tens of billions of dollars, and the median is right next to zero. That is the risk report."
— Perry Sentyle, Chief Risk Officer
Scoreboard, Q2 2026: FHLB advances, Mean. The median won the percentage change, from $152,000, and was told that doesn't count. See the Q2 2026 earnings release for the rest of the quarter's contests.
Update, Sept. 16, 2026: American Banker has the Home Loan Banks’ own number: their advances jumped 20% from the end of 2025 to the end of June. Mean has asked us to note that it was close.
Reached for comment, the editor said he had been on both sides of this one. In August 1893, with a panic on and his publishing firm owing its bank, he wrote to the partner who ran it: “It would require more borrowing, and we must not do that.” Two days later he asked whether the bank debts could be secured “by pledging part of our cash assets and—” The editor’s call dropped at that point.
Edited by Mark Twain (posthumous)
Postscript. Corrections. The median did not fall three quarters in a row; it fell, held, then fell. The $72.5 billion is 97.7% of the increase at banks that were around all year; counting every bank, the industry added $54.5 billion. The one bank's $22.4 billion is not more than every bank under $10 billion holds; those banks hold $119.7 billion. Rebuilt from the Call Reports, three of the table's medians were off: $1,824,000, not $1.80 million; $152,000, not $154,500; and $735,000, not $733,000. So were the first quarter's mean ($108.4 million, not $108.3 million) and the median's change from a year ago (−60%, not −59%). The subhead said the median bank owes “about half a million dollars”; it owes $735,000. And American Banker's 20% runs from the end of 2025 to the end of June; this page first called it the second quarter, as the article's headline does. The figures above are the right ones.