The 11 surviving Federal Home Loan Banks posted a significant increase in net income during the fourth quarter of 2015, along with a surprising jump in advances. The Office of Finance reported that the FHLBanks generated $673 million in net income during the fourth quarter, a 39.0 percent increase from the prior period. That brought year-to-date income to $2.850 billion, a 26.6 percent gain from 2014. Non-interest income was up sharply last year in large part because of settlements related to FHLBank investments in soured non-agency mortgage-backed securities, which brought in $688 million in 2015, mostly in the first half of the year. Legal settlements accounted for...