Alabama Farm Credit — The Lender Who Pays You Back!
Alabama Farm Credit was pleased to return $2,111,000 million to our borrowers this year based on our 2009 financial results. Alabama Farm Credit also reserved a portion of our net earnings to continue to serve borrowers during tough economic times.
This is the twelfth consecutive year that we have provided a patronage payment to our stockholders. The twelve- year total comes to $13.76 Million Dollars.
Paying patronage is a direct result of our cooperative structure. Because you, our customer, are a part-owner, you share in our earnings. That’s the basic philosophy behind our patronage refund program. No other type of lender offers you such an advantage.
Every year, the board of directors decides how much of the association’s earnings need to be maintained as capital to fund the association’s growth. After that, we are able to return the remainder as a patronage refund to you.
Lowering Your Effective Interest Rate
The most important benefit of our patronage program is that it lowers your effective interest rate. This year’s payment effectively lowered our stockholders’ average interest rate for 2009 by .51 percent.
You not only receive a competitive rate up front, but you also could receive a patronage dividend in years when the association does well. The more you borrow, the bigger your share of the earnings.
Earnings Reserved for You
In addition to our cash patronage program, Alabama Farm Credit also allocates the remainder of our profits to our borrowers based on how much they borrow from the association. In other words, part of our earnings is earmarked in your name and can be returned to you later. This allows the association to use the capital to fund growth and, at the same time, to keep all of its earnings allocated to its borrowers. Periodically, the association board of directors will retire a part of the allocated equity, and you will receive that portion in cash.
Referrals Keep Business Growing
At Alabama Farm Credit, we recognize that our success depends on you. Our mission is to serve you well by providing the financing and cash management tools you need to be successful. And when you are successful, we are accomplishing our mission.
A good part of our success has been word-of-mouth referrals by customers like you. These referrals are invaluable in making the association effective. The more new business we generate, the greater our earnings, and the more we can return in patronage. It’s a win-win situation.
Thank you for your business, and please call us whenever we can help with your financing needs.
