Pub. 11 2016-2017 Issue 6

www.nebankers.org 20 Extraordinary Service for Extraordinary Members. Bert Ely’s FARM CREDIT WATCH ® Shedding Light on the Farm Credit System, America’s Least Known GSE © 2017 Bert Ely O N FEB. 1, DALLAS TONSAGER, THE NEW CHAIRMAN AND CEO of the Farm Credit Administration (FCA), gave his maiden speech as FCA chairman at the Farm Credit Council’s annual meeting. Read the speech at www.fca.gov/Download/Speeches/Tonsager/ Tonsager1Feb2017.pdf. The Farm Credit Council OK is the trade association for Farm Credit System (FCS) banks and associations. Tonsager sent a powerful message to the FCS that can be characterized by one word—confidence—which appeared 23 times in his speech. According to Tonsager, the FCS must maintain the confidence of the various publics it deals with, including those it lends to, those “to whom it does not lend,” and investors in FCS debt. Most important of all, Tonsager counseled, “the [FCS] must also be mindful of the confidence that Congress has in it. It only takes one example to raise doubts and questions among members of Congress.” Those doubts and questions were starkly evident during the most recent oversight hearings the House and Senate Agriculture Committees held on FCS activities and the FCA’s regulation of the FCS. Possibly the “one example” Tonsager had in mind was CoBank, which was widely criti- cized at the two hearings for its numerous loans to large, investor-owned utilities and to other borrowers hardly in need of taxpayer-subsidized financing. Although members of the ag committees criticized the numerous instances when FCS institutions have lent out- side the limits of the Farm Credit Act or otherwise provided services not authorized by the act, Tonsager seemed to FCA Chairman Has Important Message for FCS