The Federal Home Loan Banks increased their appetite somewhat for mortgage investments in 2004, with a slight preference for agency deals. According to data obtained by Inside The GSEs from the Federal Housing Finance Board, the 12 FHLBanks held a total of $97.9 billion in mortgage-backed securities by years end 2003. That’s up just 2 percent from the $96.4 billion in MBS that the system reported in 2002.