The Federal Home Loan Bank system issued $37 billion in debt in the last week of March, a sharp drop-off from the $304 billion two weeks earlier, Bloomberg News reported. That plunge from an all-time peak earlier in the month is an early sign that the banking crisis has started to subside. The FHLBs are a Depression-era backstop created to boost mortgage lending. The system is now known as the “lender of next-to-last resort” — a play on the nickname for the Federal Reserve’s discount window that underscores the FHLBs’ role as a lender that banks use to bolster their balance sheets. Though FHLB lending is still elevated, the declines in advances and debt issuance signal that member banks’ need for cash is either met or dropping, and that many depositors are no longer pulling their cash from financial institutions. They also support the claim from JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon last week that “we’re getting near the end of this particular crisis.” Short-term issuance — notes with terms from one day to one year — fell sharply. It reached a peak of $153 billion for the week ended March 17, according to the person, who asked not to be identified discussing data that aren’t public. That issuance fell to $32.2 billion the next week and then declined to $17.6 billion the week ended March 31.