SPOKANE, Wash. (May 4, 2016) – Northwest Farm Credit Services, the Northwest’s leading agricultural lending cooperative, announced 2016 first quarter earnings of $58.4 million, as compared to $63.1 million for the same quarter of 2015. The decrease in earnings compared to the prior year was due to significant loan recoveries in 2015. Total capital increased 1.7 percent during the quarter to $2.1 billion.
“Our association’s strong financial performance continues in 2016,” said President and CEO Phil DiPofi. “Despite lower commodity prices, our customers remain well positioned to withstand the current market environment.”
DiPofi noted that staff is closely monitoring economic and weather conditions, commodity inventories and the global trade situation – all of which impact customer-members throughout the Northwest.
As a cooperative, Northwest FCS returns a share of its net earnings to customer-members in the form of patronage dividends. The Northwest FCS board recently approved an increase in patronage from 0.75 percent to 1.0 percent of a customer’s eligible average daily loan balance.
During the first quarter of 2016, a record $91.9 million was returned to eligible customer-members in the form of cash patronage, based on the association’s strong financial performance in 2015 and the amount of a customer’s business with the association. This contributed to a 43 percent increase in total cash patronage returned in 2016 as compared to 2015. Since the patronage program began in 2000, Northwest FCS has returned $590.6 million in cash patronage to customer-members.
For more information about current market conditions, see Northwest FCS Industry Insights
About Northwest Farm Credit Services
Northwest FCS is a $10.3 billion financial cooperative providing financing and related services to farmers, ranchers, agribusinesses, commercial fishermen, timber producers, rural homeowners and crop insurance customers in Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. Northwest FCS is a member of the nationwide Farm Credit System that supports agriculture and rural communities with reliable, consistent credit and financial services. For more information, go to northwestfcs.com.