Farm Credit West reports continued growth

ROCKLIN, Calif. — Farm Credit West, a cooperative agricultural lending institution with offices in Imperial, announced continued growth in net income, earning assets and capital in its annual report for 2017.

Net income for 2017 was $220 million. This compares with $206 million in 2016.

The lender said 2017 earnings were positively impacted by an increase to net interest income, resulting from exceptional loan growth and a significant reduction in its provision for loan losses.

Meanwhile, earning assets grew to $9.8 billion by the end of 2017 from $9.6 billion at the end of 2016. Average earning assets were $9.5 billion for 2017 compared to $9.2 billion for 2016.

Earning asset growth in 2017 was lower than in 2016, but the lender said that was expected given that there was a conscious effort to exit certain loans that were not core business to Farm Credit West.

Total assets were $10.3 billion as of Dec. 31, 2017.

Asset quality declined slightly to 95.9 percent non-adversely classified loans at year-end 2017, compared with 96.3 percent at year-end 2016.

Non-earning asset volume decreased to $117 million at the end of 2017 compared to $142 million at the end of 2016.

There were significant pay-downs and pay-offs of non-earning loans as well as improved performance in some non-accrual loans that allowed for them to be returned to accrual status by the end of the year, Farm Credit West reported.

Total capital at the end of 2017 was $2.1 billion compared to $1.9 billion at the end of 2016.

The lender said maintaining a strong capital position is critical to ensuring the association is protected from unexpected future losses and to enhancing Farm Credit West’s overall financial strength.

These positive results contributed to the Farm Credit West Board’s decision to declare a record cash patronage distribution of $82.7 million, which was paid to eligible customer-owners in February 2018.