Cooperative has returned nearly $1.7 billion to farmers, ranchers since 2004
OMAHA, NEBRASKA – At a time when agricultural producers face economic challenges, Farm Credit Services of America (FCSAmerica) has approved its largest cash-back dividend to date. The financial cooperative’s eligible customer-owners will receive a 2018 cash-back dividend equal to 0.90 percent of a customer’s eligible daily loan balance for an estimated total payout of approximately $230 million.
Since 2004, FCSAmerica has returned nearly $1.7 billion to farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.
“As a mission-driven cooperative, one of our key goals is to maintain the financial strength to serve agriculture and rural America through all economic cycles. We strive to be a dependable lender through every ag cycle, but especially through the tough ones,” said Mark Jensen, president and CEO of FCSAmerica. “There is no better time than today to put our financial strength to work for our customer-owners.”
Earlier this year, the Board of Directors for FCSAmerica announced that it was enhancing its patronage program to share more of the cooperative’s earnings with eligible customer-owners. It intends to target a cash-back dividend of 90 basis points for the foreseeable future, barring unforeseen events and significant changes in the environment. The earnings retained by FCSAmerica are used to build the cooperative’s financial capacity to continue serving agriculture.
The 2018 dividend checks will be mailed to eligible customer-owners in March 2019. The Board of Directors has approved a cash-back dividend program for 2019, with the amount of the distribution to be decided in December 2019.
About Farm Credit Services of America
Farm Credit Services of America is a customer-owned financial cooperative proud to finance the growth of rural America, including the special needs of young and beginning producers. With $ 29.5 billion in assets and $5.6 billion in members’ equity, FCSAmerica is one of the region’s leading providers of credit and insurance services to farmers, ranchers, agribusiness and rural residents in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming. Learn more at www.fcsamerica.com.
