Northwest Farm Credit Services Pays $165.2 Million in Patronage Dividends To Customer-Members

Spokane, Washington (Feb. 24, 2022) – The Northwest Farm Credit Services Board of Directors recently approved 2021 cash patronage dividends of 1.25% of customer-members’ eligible average daily loan balances. Eligible customer-members throughout the Northwest received patronage payments totaling $165.2 million.

“Despite continuing challenges of the pandemic and extreme drought and fire conditions across the Northwest, our customers continue to be great stewards of their businesses and sound risk managers,” said Nate Riggers, Northwest FCS Board Chair. “Their continuing strong performance allows us to maintain our risk-bearing capacity and provide consistent, reliable cash patronage dividends to our customer-members.”

One of Northwest FCS’ key business principles is to return a significant portion of net earnings to customer-members based upon their use of the cooperative. 

“Our purpose is to improve the lives of our customers, employees, communities and the industries we serve,” said Phil DiPofi, Northwest FCS President and CEO. “Being a cooperative allows us to pay a portion of our earnings back to the customer-members who helped create the association’s success. We believe this excess capital is best used by our customer-members to reinvest in their businesses and to invest in our rural communities.” 

Since the program began in 2000, more than $1.4 billion in patronage dividends has been paid to Northwest FCS customer-members.

Northwest FCS is a $14.8 billion financial cooperative providing financing and related services to farmers, ranchers, agribusinesses, commercial fishing operations, 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.

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