Farm Credit Bank Posts Record Profits

AgAmerica Farm Credit Bank in Spokane on Tuesday reported its most profitable year ever, with 1995 earnings of $147 million on interest income of $278.8 million.

That compares with earnings of $133.5 million on interest income of $291.2 million in 1994, a year when the bank lost $10 million on the sale of risky derivative securities.

Officials said interest income - the bank’s chief source of revenue - dipped in 1995 as the spread between AgAmerica’s cost of money and the interest it charges borrowers narrowed.

AgAmerica, with 71 employees and $7.46 billion in assets, is a wholesale lender, providing funds to the Northwest Farm Credit Services association in Spokane and two Omaha associations. The member-owned associations make loans to 62,000 farmers, ranchers, loggers and rural homeowners in nine states.

AgAmerica increased total loans during 1995 from $6.19 billion to $6.26 billion. Non-performing loans declined from $225.8 million to $166.4 million by year-end.

Northwest Farm Credit reported earnings of $59 million for the year, up from $52.3 million in 1994. The association said it will return $29 million in stock to members in April.

, DataTimes