Spokane, Wash. - Feb. 29, 2016 - Northwest Farm Credit Services, the Northwest’s leading financial cooperative supporting agriculture and rural communities, announced 2015 earnings of $255.6 million, an increase of $27.5 million, or 12.0 percent compared to $228.1 million in 2014. Increased earnings were primarily the result of continued loan growth and positive credit quality trends. Total capital increased 8.6 percent during the year to $2.1 billion.

“2015 was another solid year for the association,” said President and CEO Phil DiPofi. “We’ve continued to build a strong financial base to meet our customers’ growing needs for credit and work with them to prepare for volatility in the marketplace. Based on strong earnings, reserves and capital levels we are sharing a higher percentage of the associations’ profits with our customer-members this year.”

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 an increase in patronage from 0.75 percent to 1.0 percent of a customer’s eligible average daily loan balance. Cash patronage returned for 2015 totaled a record $91.9 million compared to $64.1 million for 2014. Since the patronage program began in 2000, Northwest FCS has returned $590.6 million in cash patronage to customer-members.

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

About Northwest Farm Credit Services
Northwest FCS is a $10.6 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.

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Contact
Jennifer Rohrer
Media Relations Coordinator
509.220.4099 or jennifer.rohrer@northwestfcs.com