FCSAmerica returns $4.7 M to area farmers
Farm Credit Services of America (FCSAmerica) announced today that eligible customer-owners in Franklin, Hamilton, Hardin, Webster and Wright counties will receive checks this month totaling $4.7 million – their share of the financial cooperative’s $200 million cash-back dividend for 2017.
The share of FCSAmerica’s 2017 dividend returned to Iowa customer-owners amounts to $80.7 million.
FCSAmerica has distributed a portion of its net earnings to eligible customer-owners every year since 2004, returning a total of $1.5 billion to farmers, ranchers and agri-businesses in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming
“Our cash-back dividends are an important way of sharing FCSAmerica’s financial strength with our customer-owners,” said Alan Erickson, Central Iowa Regional Vice President of FCSAmerica. “Our cash-back dividends are one of many important ways that we carry out our mission of supporting rural communities and agriculture.”
Each eligible customer’s cash-back dividend is based on the average loan volume during the calendar year. The more eligible loan business customers have with the cooperative, the more they benefit financially through cash-back dividends.
The FCSAmerica Board of Directors approves each year’s cash-back distribution in December based on a number of factors, including the cooperative’s financial performance. During the 14 years that FCSAmerica has distributed cash-back dividends, net income has grown to $582.4 million from $294 million and members’ equity has increased to $5.1 billion from $1.5 billion.
For more information on the 2017 cash-back dividend, including county-by-county distributions, visit powerofownership.com.