About 20 percent of the decline in young adult homeownership rates -- accounting for roughly 400,000 non-homeowners -- can be attributed to rising student loan debts, according to new research published yesterday by the Federal Reserve.

With the government shutdown now approaching its fourth week, the Farm Service Agency will temporarily reopen several of its offices to provide assistance to farmers and ranchers, the Department of Agriculture announced today.

Responding to a recent American Banker op-ed calling for the expansion of the Farm Credit System, Leonard Wolfe, president and chairman at United Bank and Trust in Marysville, Kan., said that any effort to do so would “fundamentally ignore the reality on the ground in agricultural lending today” and ultimately do little to help rural America. 

With a vote of 369 to 47 today, the House approved the 2018 Farm Bill.

Key regulatory changes and business trends will drive bank mergers and acquisitions in 2019, two top bank deal lawyers say on the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast.

Look for 2019 bank mergers to be driven by large deals in metro markets, smaller banks on the buy side and de novo groups acquiring rural banks.

Small cities, small towns and rural areas are facing a variety of structural headwinds, from demographic declines to globalization to the digital transformation of the economy. But locally owned community banks remain a strong countervailing force to help these communities navigate the transition.

Reform Farm Credit — a website created as part of ABA’s effort to reach influential groups involved in agricultural policy — has shared new data regarding the Farm Credit System’s 2017 lending to young, beginning and small farmers. According to the data, from 2016 to 2017 the number of new loans to young, beginning, and small farmers decreased by 11.6 ...

The federal banking agencies today released 2017 Community Reinvestment Act data on small business, small farm and community development lending.