WASHINGTON – The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council's (FFIEC) recently released annual report was a mixed bag of news of home lending trends among ethnic groups in the U.S. According to the report, the number of home loans made to Asians and Hispanics increased slightly last year – up 8% and 7%, respectively – while loans to whites, blacks, and Native Americans dropped a bit – down 6%, 5% and 1%, respectively. The report also showed that Hispanics received 14% more conventional loans than in 1999, Asians received 10% more, and black, 1% more. In comparison, conventional home mortgages to whites and Native Americans each declined 5%. Applications for all home loans, including home improvement and refinancings, dropped 16%. The FFIEC is a formal interagency body empowered to prescribe uniform principles, standards, and report forms for the federal examination of financial institutions by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) and to make recommendations to promote uniformity in the supervision of financial institutions. Data was based on mortgage lending transactions at 7,713 financial institutions covered by HMDA, including 4,033 commercial banks; 696 savings associations; 1,694 credit unions; and 1,290 mortgage companies, of which 1,009 were independent entities.