The advance business for the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks continued to shrink again in 2011, dropping 12.6 percent from the previous year to $418.2 billion, according to preliminary figures released by the FHLBank Office of Finance. However, advances did increase slightly from the third to the fourth quarter. The overall 2011 decline came through “continued low demand by member institutions resulting from high levels of liquidity in the market, as well as high levels of deposits and low loan demand experienced at member institutions,” the OF explained.