Farm Credit Canada
Farm Credit Canada (FCC; known as Farm Credit Corporation until 2001) is Canada's largest agricultural term lender.
This organization's purpose is to enhance rural Canada by providing specialized and personalized financial services to farming operations, including family farms. Although once exclusively a farm lender, FCC is now also organized to provide funding to enterprises that are closely related or dependent on farming. Its small and medium business focus is shown by its average loan disbursement of $109,000.
History and governance
FCC was established in 1959, under the Farm Credit Act, at that time solely to provide loans to farmers. It succeeded the Canadian Farm Loan Board, which had been in operation since 1929.
On April 2, 1993, Parliament passed the Farm Credit Corporation Act which then allowed the organization to expand beyond straightforward farm loans – to finance on-farm diversification projects and value-added agricultural operations beyond the "farm gate". In June 2001, the Farm Credit Canada Act changed FCC's name to Farm Credit Canada or Financement agricole Canada (FAC) in French.
In October 2008, Farm Credit Canada was named one of Canada's Top 100 Employers by Mediacorp Canada Inc, and was featured in Maclean's newsmagazine. Later that month, Farm Credit Canada was named one of Saskatchewan's Top Employers, which was announced by the Saskatoon StarPhoenix and Regina Leader-Post newspapers.[1]
In December 2008, Farm Credit Canada was named one of Report on Business Magazine's Top 50 Employers in Canada featured in The Globe and Mail newspaper.[2]
Structure and functions
FCC is one of Canada's many Crown corporations; they report to the Parliament of Canada through the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. The corporation's board consists of up to 12 members, all appointed choices that require the approval of the governor-in-council. This control board regularly meets in the corporation's head office, which is located in Regina, Saskatchewan. FCC has over 1100 employees, and six regional offices and 101 field and district offices across the country, primarily in rural Canada.
FCC can fund and deliver joint programs and services with federal agencies, provincial governments and other term lenders. FCC’s operations are funded primarily through FCC Bond offerings, structured notes, institutional short-term notes, long-term programs and institutional debt. It raises money on the domestic and international markets.
The product portfolio for FCC includes a variety of intermediate and long-term loans, with amortization periods as long as 29 years. As of March 2005, the corporation had a loan portfolio of 85,650 loans, with a total value of $11,150 million.
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