Patronage Program
When Alabama Farm Credit does well financially, you benefit. As a cooperative, we support the cooperative principle of sharing our success with our customer-owners. That's the basic philosophy behind the patronage refund program. Investor-owned lenders pay dividends to their shareholders based on their ownership shares in the company.
In contrast, we pass our earnings along to customers in the form of patronage. Every borrower is also a stockholder who receives a part of the association's profits. The more you borrow, the bigger your share of earnings.
We understand the unique aspects of rural real estate financing, and we take a personal interest in each of our customers in an effort to meet their financing needs.
2009 Patronage Payout
Alabama Farm Credit returned more than $2.745 million to our borrowers based on our 2008 financial results. This is the 10th consecutive year we are giving back to you, the borrower. The 11-year total comes to over $11.5 million.
Lowering Your Effective Interest Rate
The most important benefit of our patronage program is that it lowers your effective interest rate. You not only receive a competitive rate up front, but you could receive a patronage dividend in years when the association does well.
Every year, after the board of directors decides how much of the association's earnings need to be maintained as capital to fund the association's growth, we are able to return the remainder as a patronage refund to you.
At Alabama Farm Credit, we recognize that our success depends on you. Our mission is to serve you well by providing the financing you need to be successful.
Our commitment to sharing our profits with you comes from our cooperative structure. No other type of lender offers you such an advantage.
