The 11th District Cost of Funds is more prevalent in the West and the
1-Year Treasury Security is more prevalent in the East. Buyers prefer the slowly moving 11th District Cost of
Funds and investors prefer the 1-Year Treasury Security.
The monthly weighted average Eleventh District has been published by the Federal
Home Loan Bank of San Francisco since August 1981. Currently more than one half of the savings institutions
loans made in California are tied to the 11th District Cost of Funds (COF) index.
The Federal Home Loan Bank's 11th District is comprised of saving
institutions in Arizona, California and Nevada.
Few people who use and follow the 11th District Cost of Funds understand
exactly how it is calculated, what it represents, how it moves and what factors affect it.
The predecessor to the 11th District Cost of Funds index was the District
semiannual weighted average cost of funds published for a six month period ending in June and December. The San
Francisco Bank was the first Federal Home Loan Bank to publish a monthly cost of funds index.
The funds used as a basis for the calculation of the 11th District Cost
of Funds index are the liabilities at the District savings institutions: money on deposit at the institutions, money
borrowed from a Federal Home Loan Bank (known as advances) and all other money borrowed. The interest paid on
these types of funds is the cost of these funds.
The ratio of the dollar amount paid in interest during the month to the
average dollar amount of the funds for that month constitutes the weighted average cost of funds ratio for that month.
The average cost of funds is said to be weighted because the three kinds of funds and their costs are added together before a ratio is computed rather than calculating averages individually for the three sources and using a simple average of the three ratios. This gives the greatest weight to the interest paid on deposits, and explains the delayed reaction of the index to rising fixed-rate mortgages.