In testimony before the Senate Agriculture Committee on behalf of ABA today, Leonard Wolfe, president and CEO of United Bank and Trust in Marysville, Kan., raised concerns about the size, complexity and tax advantage of the Farm Credit System and called for closer congressional oversight of the government sponsored enterprise — a key component of ABA’s Agenda for America’s Hometown Banks.
Following persistent advocacy by ABA, state bankers associations and bankers, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry announced this week that it will hold a hearing on May 19 to discuss the oversight of the Farm Credit System.
A sixth-generation rancher and passionate ag lender, Montana’s Heather Malcolm is committed to cultivating the next generation of agriculture.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on how the USDA’s lending programs help strengthen rural america.
On April 11, The Washington Post ran a long and very critical article on the FCS that was neatly summarized in its headline: Critics say Farm Credit System needs to be reined in.
A lengthy Washington Post article yesterday focuses on the extensive non-farm lending of the Farm Credit System and highlighted efforts by ABA and bankers on its Agricultural Credit Task Force to rein in the government-sponsored enterprise that has long exceeded its intended purpose.
Just 4,458 persons or entities had each borrowed at least $5 million from the FCS in 2015. Can taxpayer-subsidized financing be justified for any of these borrowers?
ABA yesterday sent letters to the leaders of the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees on agriculture that expressed support for the USDA’s Farm Service Agency Guaranteed Farm Loan Programs and requested, among other things, greater flexibility and funding for specific programs.
Farm banks increased their agricultural lending by 7.9 percent in 2015 and held $100.3 billion in ag loans at year’s end, according to the ABA Center for Agricultural and Rural Banking’s annual Farm Bank Performance Report released today.
ABA and more than 250 other farm-related groups today wrote to the leaders of the congressional appropriations and budget committees, urging them not to make further cuts to federal agriculture programs.