Farm Credit System: Potential Impacts of FCB Mergers on Farmer and
Rancher Borrowers (Chapter Report, 12/02/94, GAO/GGD-95-19).

The Farm Credit System is a congressionally chartered nationwide network
of cooperatively owned banks and their related associations that extends
billions of dollars of credit and services to farmers, ranchers,
producers, and cooperatives in rural America.  As a result of
unprecedented consolidation during the past 20 years, the total number
of institutions in the system fell by more than 1,000 to fewer than 250,
with 97 percent of the decrease resulting from association mergers.  As
of April 1994, more than half of the Farm Credit Banks (FCB) had merged
since 1992.  GAO studied the potential benefits to borrowers as a result
of merging the existing FCBs to form fewer regional banks. This report
discusses the potential effects of such bank mergers, including (1)
economies of scale, (2) the level of services offered by associations,
(3) the system's operation as a cooperative, and (4) the
bank-association relationship.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  GGD-95-19
     TITLE:  Farm Credit System: Potential Impacts of FCB Mergers on 
             Farmer and Rancher Borrowers
      DATE:  12/02/94
   SUBJECT:  Farm credit
             Government sponsored enterprises
             Lending institutions
             Farm credit banks
             Bank management
             Government guaranteed loans
             Agricultural cooperatives
             Interagency relations
             Banking regulation
IDENTIFIER:  Farm Credit System