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ATLANTA, March 25 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors of Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta (Bank) has announced that the Bank will not pay a dividend for the fourth quarter of 2008. The dividend decision continues to reflect a conservative financial management approach during this period of extended volatility in the financial markets and the Bank's recording of other-than-temporary impairment (OTTI) losses on its private-label mortgage-backed securities (MBS) for the quarter and year ended Dec. 31, 2008. For the year 2008, the Bank paid an annualized dividend of 3.54 percent.

The Bank's Board of Directors also announced that due to the ongoing uncertainty in the financial markets, the Bank will no longer provide dividend guidance prior to the end of each quarter. The Bank expects to make any dividend determination after the end of each quarter and after quarterly results are known. The Bank may resume quarterly dividend guidance prior to the end of each quarter as circumstances allow.

The Bank also announced that it will repurchase fifty percent (50%) of each member's excess activity-based stock outstanding as of March 16, 2009, but not to exceed the amount of such member's excess activity-based stock on the date of repurchase. The Bank previously had informed its members that it would no longer conduct repurchases of excess activity-based stock on a daily basis, but would make such determinations quarterly.

"The Bank continues to perform well in this most difficult of economic environments, while taking prudent steps to protect our members' investment and ongoing access to liquidity," said Richard A. Dorfman, President and Chief Executive Officer, FHLBank Atlanta. "The Bank recognizes the value our dividend provides to member financial institutions, and we are working diligently to provide a return on our members' capital stock."

If you have additional questions, please contact FHLBank Atlanta's Funding Desk at 1.800.536.9650, ext. 8011.

About FHLBank Atlanta

FHLBank Atlanta offers competitively-priced financing, community development grants, and other banking services to help more than 1,200 member financial institutions make affordable home mortgages and provide economic development credit to neighborhoods and communities. The Bank's members--its shareholders and customers--are commercial banks, credit unions, savings institutions, thrift and loans, and insurance companies headquartered in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. FHLBank Atlanta is one of 12 district banks in the Federal Home Loan Bank System which since 1990 has contributed more than $3 billion to the Affordable Housing Program.

Some of the statements made in this announcement including those that relate to future dividends, are "forward-looking statements", which include statements with respect to FHLBank Atlanta's beliefs, plans, objectives, goals, expectations, anticipations, assumptions, estimates, intentions, and future performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which may be beyond FHLBank Atlanta's control, and which may cause the Bank's actual dividend payment, results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements may not be realized due to a variety of factors, including, without limitation: FHLBank Atlanta's net income results, which drive the determination of dividend payments; legislative and regulatory actions or changes; future economic and market conditions; changes in demand for advances or consolidated obligations of FHLBank Atlanta and/or the FHLBank System; changes in interest rates; political, national and world events; and adverse developments or events affecting or involving other Federal Home Loan Banks or the FHLBank System in general. Additional factors that might cause FHLBank Atlanta's results to differ from these forward-looking statements are provided in detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available at www.sec.gov.