Federal Reserve Statistical Release E.15 - Agricultural Finance Databook

Section A:  Amount and Characteristics of Farm Loans Made by Commercial Banks

These data are for non-real-estate farm loans of $1,000 or more made by commercial banks.  They are
derived from quarterly sample surveys conducted by the Federal Reserve System during the first full week
of the second month of each quarter.  Data obtained from the sample are expanded into national estimates
for all commercial banks, which are shown in the following tables.

Since May 1997, the Federal Reserve has collected data on the assessment by the lender of the risk
associated with each loan, the next date that the rate of interest could be adjusted, whether the loan was
callable by the bank, and whether the borrower could prepay the loan without penalty.  Over time, the data
on the lender's perception of the riskiness of farm loans should help provide a better picture of the effect of
fluctuations in the creditworthiness of farm borrowers as farm financial conditions or the broader economic
environment changes.  The new data on loan repricing dates, the callability of the loan, and the existence of
prepayment penalties should help to refine estimates of the duration of farm loans made by commercial
banks.

Tables A.8 through A.13 contain most of the new data, whereas the other tables in this section show
estimates that are comparable to those that have been presented for a number of years.  However, for
several quarters while the new survey was being designed, banks that left the survey panel were not
replaced immediately because new replacement banks would soon have been forced to revise their newly
instituted reporting procedures when the new survey form went into effect.  As a result, the size of the
survey panel dwindled through early 1997, and an unusually large number of new reporters (about 25)
were added with the May 1997 survey.  This change did not affect the validity of the May survey
information, but it likely introduced sampling error, especially when the May survey results are compared
with those of previous quarters.

The format and the information contained in the tables are likely to change as more of the new survey
information is acquired.

Since November 1991, several survey statistics have been estimated for each of ten farm production
regions as defined by the United States Department of Agriculture.  These statistics, which are presented in
table A.14, should be treated with some caution.  Although an effort was made to choose a good regional
mix of banks for the panel, the panel never has been stratified by region.  Consequently, the survey results
are less precise for each region than for the totals for the nation.  More-detailed results from each quarterly
survey were previously published in Statistical Release E.2A, Survey of Terms of Bank Lending to
Farmers.  Since February 1992, these results have been included at the end of section A of the databook.
The E.2A was discontinued discontinued in February 1992.


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