Issues for ag bankers

Farm and Ranch November 19, 2010 Cori Price of Oregon is chair of the American Bankers Association’s Ag and Rural Bankers Committee. At the recent Ag Bankers Annual Conference held in Omaha, Price talked about countering some mistaken perceptions.

Price: “Well you know there is a lot of media regarding banks that is not very positive right now. They indicate that there is no money. Banks are not making loans. I just don‘t think that is the case. Community banks are making loans. There are funds available for their borrowers. You know if a bank is not going to make a loan we are not going to make any money. So the idea that we aren‘t going to be loaning money is not very realistic.”

Price says bankers are facing a challenge familiar to farmers and ranchers, burdensome regulation.

Price: “Well there has been so much regulatory reform here in the last year that I think bankers are going to have to spend more time and resources understanding those regulations, implementing those regulations so that they can abide by them. And that in itself is going to take time and resources away from basically servicing our ag borrowers.”

John Blanchfield, American Bankers Association senior vice president for agricultural and rural lending says that new Financial Consumer Protection Bureau stands to harm borrowers, banks and communities. Because of the data banks must gather and provide the government he fears the politicization of credit.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.