Lawmakers echoed bankers’ concerns about “mission creep” by the government-sponsored Farm Credit System in a House Agriculture Committee hearing today on the system’s performance and overall safety and soundness.

Farmer Mac today reported $1.5 billion in net new business growth in the fourth quarter, generating a record outstanding business volume of $17.4 billion as of Dec. 31, 2016.

Total loan balances at FDIC-insured banks grew 6.8 percent between September 2015 and September 2016, with considerable growth occurring in commercial real estate, agricultural, and oil and gas lending portfolios, the agency said in the winter issue of its Supervisory Insights publication released today.

ABA’s 2016–17 Government Relations Council chairman, Stan Jenks, wants banker-customer encounters to be ‘teachable moments.’

In a statement for the record in today’s House Appropriations Committee oversight hearing on Farm Credit Administration, ABA emphasized that the Farm Credit System has become too large, too unfocused and too reliant on taxpayer subsidies.

At a Senate Agriculture Committee field hearing in Kansas today, ABA highlighted the critical role that the nation’s banks play providing credit to farmers and ranchers, and advocated for changes to the upcoming 2018 Farm Bill that would take into account the rising costs of agriculture.

On February 1, Dallas Tonsager, the new chairman and CEO of the Farm Credit Administration (FCA), gave his maiden speech as FCA chairman at the Farm Credit Council’s annual meeting. The Council is the trade association for the FCS’s banks and associations. Tonsager sent a powerful message to the FCS that can be characterized by one word – confidence – ...

The current shortage of certified appraisers is hitting bankers hard, particularly in rural markets.

Agricultural bankers examine the effects of financial stress on rural communities.

By Bert Ely As last month’s FCW reported, on December 1, the ABA sent a letter to Farm Credit Administration (FCA) chairman Dallas Tonsager registering ABA’s strong objection to CoBank’s participation in a $1.55 billion credit facility that had been extended to CyrusOne LP, the operating partnership of CyrusOne, Inc., a NASDAQ-listed Real Estate Investment Trust, or REIT. CoBank’s portion ...