Agricultural Lender Plans Cutback Northwest Farm Credit Services To Eliminate About 50 Jobs

Northwest Farm Credit Services, a Spokane-based agricultural lender, plans to trim nearly 50 people from its 483-person staff and lower interest rates by year-end.

Plans call for a 10 percent reduction in employment at the bank, from 483 full-time equivalent workers to 425. Only six positions would be eliminated at downtown headquarters, which houses 78 full-time employees, bank President Jay Penick said Thursday.

An estimated annual savings of $4.5 million tied to the downsizing and reorganizing of the bank will be passed on to the bank’s 24,000 customers in the form of an interest rate cut, Penick said. The amount of the cut will be announced later this year.

“Our goal is to continue to reduce interest rates charged to customers,” Penick said. “All things combined, we believe we can do our job better and provide better customer service with fewer positions.”

The staff reductions reflect more efficient operations made possible since 1992 when the bank invested $4 million in a new computer network, and the continued decline in labor-intensive non-performing loans.

Since 1989, the institution’s troubled loan volume - and the need for workers to service those accounts - has fallen significantly. The number of employees working on troubled loans has dropped from 130 to 43, Penick said.

Northwest Farm Credit also is reorganizing its credit officers this fall to target specific commodities and types of customers.

The changes should provide a 15 percent drop in annual operating expenses, from $39 million to $34.5 million, Penick said.

Northwest Farm Credit, which has branch offices in 46 communities and $1.4 billion in assets, makes real estate and operating loans to farmers, loggers, fishermen and rural homeowners.

The institution is part of the nine-state AgAmerica Farm Credit Bank, headquartered in Spokane. AgAmerica provides funds to Northwest Farm Credit and two other farmer-owned cooperatives.

, DataTimes