Total capital rises to $2.2 billion for NFCS Members paid $99.4 million in patronage

SPOKANE — Northwest Farm Credit Services, the Northwest’s leading financial cooperative supporting agriculture, forestry, fisheries and rural communities, announced 2016 earnings of $247.2 million, compared with $255.6 million in 2015.

According to President and Chief Executive Officer Phil DiPofi, the higher earnings in 2015 were the result of larger credit loss reversals in that year. Total capital increased 7.2 percent during the year to $2.2 billion.

“Despite the downturn in price and demand for some agricultural commodities, 2016 turned out to be another year of solid financial performance for our collective customer base,” DiPofi said. “As a result, Northwest FCS continues to grow in loan volume, capital and patronage paid to our customer-members.”

The Northwest FCS board recently approved patronage of 1.0 percent of a customer-member’s eligible average daily loan balance. Cash patronage for 2016 totaled a record $99.4 million compared to $91.9 million for 2015.

As a cooperative, Northwest FCS returns a share of its net earnings to customer-members in the form of patronage dividends. Since the patronage program began in 2000, Northwest FCS has returned $690 million in cash patronage to customer-members.

Northwest FCS is an $11 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.