Northwest Farm Credit Services 3-quarter Earnings $173.5 million

SPOKANE – Northwest Farm Credit Services announced earnings for the nine months ended September 30 of $173.5 million.

That is an increase of $2.2 million, or 1.3 percent compared to the same period of last year for the Northwest’s largest agricultural lending cooperative.

According to Phil DiPofi, president and CEO, the cooperative’s strong earnings and capital have increased its capacity to serve customers in times of volatility.

“Several sectors of the agricultural economy have rebounded in recent years, which has helped strengthen our financial position,” he said. “Looking ahead, commodity price volatility, reduced exports and weather-related events will bring new challenges to producers.”

Net interest income increased four percent compared to the same nine-month period of 2013, driven mainly by loan growth. Improved credit quality over the past two years has prompted credit loss reversals during the first nine months of both 2013 and 2014. Total capital increased 7.4 percent during the first nine months of 2014 to $1.9 billion.

Northwest FCS is a customer-owned 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 provides approximately $12 billion in loans and is

a member of the Farm Credit System, a nationwide network of borrower-owned lending institutions that provide approximately $205 billion in loans to rural America. For more information, go to northwestfcs.com.