The Farm Credit System is a network of borrower-owned
lending institutions and related service organizations
serving all 50 states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. These institutions
specialize in providing credit and related services to farmers, ranchers,
and producers or harvesters of aquatic products. Loans
may also be made to finance the processing and marketing activities of these
borrowers. In addition, loans may be made to rural homeowners, certain
farm-related businesses, and agricultural, aquatic, and public utility cooperatives.
All system banks and associations are governed by boards of directors elected by
the stockholders who are farmer-borrowers of each institution.
Additionally, Federal law requires that at least one member of the board be
elected from outside the System by the other directors. System
institutions, unlike commercial banks or thrifts, do not take deposits.
As of April 1, 2006 the System was composed of the following lending
institutions:
* Four Farm
Credit Banks (FCBs) that provide loan funds to 80 Agricultural Credit Associations (ACAs)
and 11 Federal Land Credit Associations (FLCAs). ACAs make short, intermediate, and
long-term loans and FLCAs make
long-term loans.
* One Agricultural Credit Bank (ACB), which
has the authority of an FCB and provides loan funds to 5 ACAs. In
addition, the ACB makes loans of all kinds to agricultural, aquatic, and public
utility cooperatives and is authorized to finance U.S. agricultural exports and
provide international banking services for farmer-owned cooperatives.
Agricultural producers represent, by far, the System's largest group of
borrowers and account for approximately 20 percent of the U.S. farms.
