The Federal Home Loan Banks of Seattle, Wash., and Des Moines, Iowa, plan to merge.

The Seattle FHLB provides low-cost long- and short-term funding to more than 320 member financial institutions in Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, as well as the U.S. territories of American Samoa and Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

"We believe that this merger of Federal Home Loan Banks will result in a cooperative that will be stronger than either the Seattle or Des Moines cooperative on an individual basis," said FHLB Seattle President and Chief Executive Officer Mike Wilson, in a statement.

The merged bank will be headquartered in Des Moines, but at least one member director from each state will serve on the board of directors and the bank will have an ongoing customer-service presence in the Northwest," Wilson said.

Wilson and FHLB Des Moines President and Chief Executive Officer Dick Swanson will serve as co-executive leaders, with Swanson to serve as CEO and Wilson to serve as president.

Details of the merger agreement are included in the banks’ related Form 8-K filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The banks also must file a merger application with the Federal Home Loan Finance Agency in order to obtain regulatory approval. Member financial institutions then will vote on whether to approve the merger, likely in the first half of 2015.