FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Northwest Farm Credit Services Reports 2017 Earnings

Customer-Members Receive $108.1 Million in Cash Patronage

SPOKANE, Wash. (Feb. 22, 2018) – Northwest Farm Credit Services, the Northwest’s leading agricultural lending cooperative, announced 2017 earnings of $250.6 million, compared to $247.2 million in 2016. Total capital increased 6.7 percent during the year to $2.4 billion.

"We continued to enhance our financial capacity in 2017 by strengthening our earnings and capital," said President and CEO Phil DiPofi. "Despite lower producer returns in some areas, loan delinquencies remain low and credit quality remains solid."

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 patronage of 1.0 percent of a customer-member’s eligible average daily loan balance. Cash patronage for 2017 totaled a record $108.1 million compared to $99.4 million for 2016. Since the patronage program began in 2000, Northwest FCS has returned more than $798 million in cash patronage to customer-members.

"Our ability to pay significant levels of cash patronage year after year is a direct result of the business success of our customer-members and their abilities to manage through the ups and downs of agriculture," said DiPofi. "The geographic and commodity diversification of our loan portfolio continues to be a major strength of our cooperative."

For more information about current market conditions, see  Northwest FCS Industry Insights.

About Northwest Farm Credit Services
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.

Contact:
Debra Strohmaier, Communications Specialist
debra.strohmaier@northwestfcs.com
509.340.5443

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