Although captive insurance companies are now barred from joining, membership among traditional insurers in the Federal Home Loan Banks is growing. Fitch Ratings reports that the number of insurance companies participating in the FHLB system has grown by an average of close to 8 percent annually over the past five years. Membership is more commonly associated with commercial banks and other deposit and lending institutions, but there were 304 FHLBank insurance company members by the end of 2014, representing 4 percent of the total membership and nearly 13 percent of all funds advanced to members, said Fitch. Several groups of insurance companies have also substantially increased their borrowing capacity.