Top 100 Ag Banks

The American Bankers Association (ABA) posts a quarterly report of the 100 largest Ag Banks (Non-Farm Credit).  In the first quarter report for this year, the #1 bank for Ag loans was Wells Fargo with $7.229 billion of farmland ($2.231 billion and $4.998 billion of other ag loans).  #2 was Rabobank with $3.957 billion followed by Bank of the West ($3.342 billion), Bank of America ($2.471 billion) and First National Bank of Omaha ($2.050 billion) to round out the top 5 banks.

There are currently 11 banks with more than $1 billion in Ag loans with Bremer Bank based in Minnesota at $1.005 billion being #11.  John Deere Financial is # 8 on the list with $1.497 billion of machinery loans and about 77% of its assets are composed of farm loans which is the highest percentage in the Top 50, tied with First Financial Bank of El Dorado, Arkansas.  In recent years, having a large concentration in Ag Loans has been a good thing.  Over the next five years, maybe not so good.  You can understand a bank like John Deere Financial having a large concentration of Ag loans, but a smaller bank like First Financial may face greater regulatory scrutiny.

Banks in the Top 100 banks with exposure greater than 60% that have not yet been mentioned are:

#15 United Bank of Iowa, Ida Grove, Iowa – 76%

#21 American State Bank, Sioux Center, Iowa – 63%

#38 Investors Community Bank, Manitowoc, Wisconsin – 63%

#50 Carroll County State Bank, Carroll, Iowa – 61%

#64 Peoples Bank, Rock Valley, Iowa – 68%

#74 American Bank and Trust, Wessington Springs, South Dakota – 61%

#89 First State Bank of North Dakota, Arthur, North Dakota – 74%

#96 Premier Bank, Rock Valley, Iowa – 70%

#97 Security Savings Bank, Canton, SD – 73%

#99 The Farmers Bank of Prophetstown, Prophetstown, Illinois – 74%

Three of these banks are located in Northwest Iowa and two in the same town of Rock Valley, Iowa (which I drove through a week ago Saturday along with Sioux Center).  This is the part of Iowa that has seen farm land prices in excess of $20,000.  If you want to see a list of the top 100 Ag banks by loan concentration, see the list here.

Paul Neiffer, CPA