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Organization of the FCS

Lending Institutions

• Three Farm Credit Banks (FCBs) provide loan funds to 53 Agricultural Credit Associations (ACAs) and one Federal Land Credit Association (FLCA). ACAs make short-, intermediate-, and long-term loans; FLCAs make long-term loans.
  
  
• One Agricultural Credit Bank (ACB) has the authority of an FCB and provides loan funds to 27 ACAs and two FLCAs. In addition, the ACB has the authority of a Bank for Cooperatives and makes loans of all kinds to agricultural, aquatic, and public utility cooperatives. The ACB is authorized to finance U.S. agricultural exports and provide international banking services for farmer-owned cooperatives.

Federal Farm Credit Banks Funding Corporation

The Funding Corporation is owned by the FCS banks. It markets the securities—chiefly bonds and discount notes—that the banks sell in the Nation’s capital markets to raise loan funds. This is how FCS institutions obtain the majority of their loan funds. These securities are offered by the Funding Corporation through a nationwide group of securities dealers and dealer banks. For more information, visit the Funding Corporation’s Web site.

Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation

The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac) is a Government-sponsored enterprise with the mission of providing a secondary market for agricultural real estate and rural housing mortgage loans. For more information, see the Farmer Mac page on FCA's Web site.

Service Corporations

• AgVantis, Inc., provides technology-related and other support services to associations in the CoBank, ACB, district. AgVantis, which was chartered by FCA on August 3, 2001, is owned by the bank and 18 of its affiliated associations.
  
  
• The Farm Credit Finance Corporation of Puerto Rico (FCFCPR) used tax incentives offered to investors to provide low-interest funding (other than that from the Funding Corporation) to Puerto Rico Farm Credit, ACA. Because of changes in the tax treatment of the corporation, AgFirst Farm Credit Bank, which is the sole owner of FCFCPR, suspended operations of FCFCPR as of December 31, 2005, although the charter remains outstanding.
  
  
• The Farm Credit Leasing Services Corporation provides equipment leasing services to eligible borrowers, including agricultural producers, cooperatives, and rural utilities. The Leasing Corporation is owned by CoBank, ACB.
  
  
• Farm Credit Financial Partners, Inc., provides support services to CoBank, ACB; six associations affiliated with CoBank; one association affiliated with AgriBank, FCB; the Farm Credit Leasing Services Corporation; and two FCS-related entities.
  
  
• The FCS Building Association (FCSBA) acquires, manages, and maintains facilities to house FCA’s headquarters and field office staff. The FCSBA was formed in 1981 and is owned by the FCS banks. The FCA Board oversees FCSBA’s activities on behalf of its owners.
  
  
• Farm Credit Foundations provides human resource services to its employer-owners, including payroll processing, benefits administration, centralized vendor management, workforce management and operations, corporate tax and financial reporting services, and retirement workshops. It is owned by AgriBank, FCB, and each of its 17 affiliated associations, as well as 26 associations and one service corporation (AgVantis, Inc.) affiliated with CoBank, ACB.

  Page last reviewed or updated: January 30, 2012