Farm Credit Bank of Texas Shares $68.3 Million With Stockholders
For Immediate Release: February 20, 2013
AUSTIN, Texas – Farm Credit Bank of Texas (FCBT), a cooperatively owned wholesale funding bank, recently distributed $65.8 million in cash patronage and allocated another $2.5 million for future cash payouts. This refund returned more than 39 percent of the bank’s $174.6 million net income in 2012 to the rural lending cooperatives and other financing institutions that own the bank.
Together, the bank and its affiliated lending cooperatives declared $210.6 million in patronage, based on 2012 earnings, effectively lowering the cost of borrowing for the agricultural producers, agribusinesses and rural property owners they serve.
“The bank had more than $1 billion in loan growth in 2012, and asset quality has recovered from a lingering economic downturn,” said Larry Doyle, FCBT chief executive officer. “Our continued growth and our business structure enable us to share our earnings, strengthening our affiliated cooperatives’ ability to provide competitive financing in rural communities across five states.”
The bank’s loan volume totaled $11.34 billion at Dec. 31, 2012. Loan growth included a $278 million increase in loans to its affiliated cooperatives and a $783.7 million increase in loans to regional, national and multinational food, energy, agribusiness and telecommunications companies.
“We exceeded our expectations by many measures,” said Jimmy Dodson, FCBT board chairman. “The impact of these excellent results is most strongly felt in Farm Credit’s mission to improve life in rural America. As a dependable source of credit and financial services that shares its earnings with its customers through patronage, Farm Credit is a remarkable cornerstone of America’s food, fiber and family success story.”
Established in 1916, Farm Credit Bank of Texas receives its funding through the sale of highly rated Farm Credit notes and bonds. The federated cooperative provides funding to 17 rural lending cooperatives in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas, and three other financing institutions.
District net income increased 11.1 percent to a record $409.4 million for the year ended Dec. 31, 2012, compared with $368.7 million for the previous year. Combined district loan volume totaled $16.9 billion at Dec. 31, 2012, up 8.0 percent from year-end 2011.
The bank is part of the Farm Credit System, the nation’s oldest and largest source of financing for agriculture and rural America. Nationally, the Farm Credit System reported combined net income of $4.12 billion at Dec. 31, 2012, compared with $3.94 billion a year earlier.