FARM CREDIT ADMINISTRATION Authority for the organization and the activities of the Farm Credit Administration may be found in the following: Federal Farm Loan Act, approved July 17, 1916, and amendments thereto; Agricultural Marketing Act, approved June 15, 1929, and amendments thereto section 201 (e) of the Emergency Relief and Construction Act of 1932, approved July 1, 1932; sections 401 and 403 of title IV of part II of the Legislative Appropriation Act, fiscal year 1933, as amended by an act of Congress approved March 3, 1933; Executive Order No. 6084, dated March 27, 1933; Emergency Farm Mortgage Act of 1933, approved May 12, 1933; Farm Credit Act of 1933, approved June 16, 1933; Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation Act, approved January 31, 1934; and sundry other resolutions and acts of Congress amending the foregoing or of a temporary character (e.g., the act of Congress approved February 23, 1934, authorizing the making of loans to farmers and stockmen during the year 1934). The Farm Credit Administration, organized in May 1933, provides a complete and coordinated credit system for agriculture by making available to farmers long-term, short-term, and intermediate credit in the form of farm mortgage, production, and cooperative marketing loans. Before the consolidation, the 12 Federal land banks and the jointstock land banks making long-term first-mortgage loans to farmers, and the 12 Federal intermediate-credit banks that rediscount shortterm agricultural and livestock paper and make direct loans to cooperative marketing and purchasing associations, were under the general supervision of the Federal Farm Loan Board which was abolished and its stabilization operations discontinued. Its function of making loans to cooperatives for purchasing physical facilities and for effective merchandising were taken over by the newly created banks for cooperatives. The 12 regional agricultural credit corporations established by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation were placed under the supervision of the Farm Credit Administration as well as the feed and seed loans made by the Department of Agriculture. The Farm Credit Administration is headed by a governor, 2 deputy governors, and 4 commissioners. The 4 commissioners, directly responsible to the governor, are in charge of the following activities: (a) The Land Bank Commissioner is responsible for the supervision and regulation of the Federal land banks, jointstock land banks, and national farm-loan associations; for the liquidation of joint-stock land banks in receivership, and for the administration of a fund of $200,000,000 made available to him for the purpose of loans to farmers. (b) The intermediate credit commissioner is responsible for the supervision and regulation of the 12 Federal intermediate-credit banks. (c) The production credit commissioner is responsible for the supervision of the 12 production credit corporations and the production credit associations provided for under the Farm Credit Act of 1933. (d) The cooperative bank commissioner is in charge of the Central Bank for Cooperatives located at Washington, D.C. and is responsible for the supervision of the 12 regional banks for cooperatives provided for under the Farm Credit Act of 1933. REGIONAL ORGANIZATION The United States is divided into 12 Federal land-bank districts. In each district there is a Federal land bank, a Federal intermediatecredit bank, a production credit corporation, and a bank for cooperatives. All four institutions serving a district are located in the same city and have the same directors. Although the three banks and the production credit corporation have the same directors, each organization has its own set of officers in charge of day-to-day operations. In order to coordinate the activities of the different credit agencies and to set up machinery that will make it possible to avoid needless overlapping and duplication of effort and facilities, the directors of the four institutions in each district meet as a coordinating body known as the "Council of the Farm Credit Administration" of the district. An executive officer called the "general agent", nominated by the Governor of the Farm Credit Administration and appointed by the district council, is responsible for carrying out the policies of the council and for coordinating the day-to-day activities of the different institutions. To avoid unnecessary duplication of personnel and facilities, the legal, accounting, informational, statistical, and field activities of the four agencies are under the supervision and direction of the general agent. This set-up provides a complete and coordinated credit system for agriculture. By writing a single letter addressed to the Farm Credit Administration of the district in which his farm is located, a farmer can obtain full information on all types of credit extended by agencies under the supervision of the Federal Government. The location of the regional offices of the Farm Credit Adminis tration, with the district served by each office, is as follows: Springfield, Mass.: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Baltimore, Md.: Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Columbia, S.C.: North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisville, Ky.: Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. St. Paul, Minn.: North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Omaha, Nebr.: South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Wichita, Kans.: Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Houston, Tex.: Texas. Berkeley, Calif.: California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. FEDERAL CREDIT UNIONS The Farm Credit Administration supervises the establishment of Federal credit unions authorized by Public Act No. 467, Seventythird Congress, approved June 26, 1934. Federal credit unions, which are cooperative thrift and loan organizations, are chartered by the Governor of the Farm Credit Adminis tration, under whose general supervision they operate. Membership in Federal credit unions is limited to groups having common bonds of occupation or association, or living within welldefined communities. A member of a Federal credit union must purchase one or more $5 shares of capital stock of the organization. Loans may be made to members only, for provident or productive purposes. The Government does not subscribe to the capital of credit unions; nor does it provide any of their loanable funds, which come from the members' purchases of capital stock and from such borrowings as are permitted by the law. (10-10-34) LOANS BY FEDERAL LAND BANKS The 12 Federal land banks make loans only upon first mortgages on farms. To be eligible as a borrower, an applicant must be engaged or shortly to become engaged in farming operations, or the principal part of his income must be derived from farm operations. The Emergency Farm Mortgage Act of May 12, 1933, greatly increased the capacity of the Federal land banks to meet the farmmortgage credit needs of farmers. Included among the important features of this legislation are the following: (a) Interest rates are temporarily reduced on— (1) Federal land bank loans made through national farm loan associations or through agents, or purchased from jointstock land banks, and outstanding on May 12, 1933; (2) New loans made by Federal land banks through national farm loan associations before May 12, 1935. (b) No payment on principal on such loans will be required by a Federal land bank for a period of 5 years from July 11, 1933, if the borrower is not in default as to any other provision of his mortgage. (c) Federal land banks may make direct loans in territories where there are no national farm loan associations through which applications may be accepted. These loans may subsequently be converted into loans through national farm loan associations, with reduced interest rates. (d) The Land Bank Commissioner is authorized to make farm mortgage loans of a more or less emergency character, separate and distinct from Federal land bank loans. In making these loans the Commissioner uses the facilities of the Federal land banks. The Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation, established by an Act of Congress approved on January 31, 1934, is authorized to issue and have outstanding at any one time a total of not more than $2,000,000,000 of bonds, for the purpose of financing loan operations of the Federal land banks and the Land Bank Commissioner. Of the bonds so authorized, an amount not to exceed $600,000,000 may be used until February 1, 1936, by the Land Bank Commissioner for the purpose of making loans under the provisions of the Emergency Farm Mortgage Act of 1933. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 1. Q. What is a Federal land bank loan? A. It is a long-term, low-interest-rate loan made by a Federal land bank to an individual who gives as security a first mortgage upon his farm and who agrees to repay in annual or semiannual installments. 51631-34 (13) (4-20-34) |